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Section .  /.  hv- . .  W. .  IlZJ.  . 
Number ■. 


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The  Longer  Epistles 

OF  PAUL. 


viz: 
EOMANS,  I  COEmTHIANS,  II  CORINTHIANS. 


BY 


REV.  iienry'^cowles,  d.  d. 


"  All  Scriptures  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profitable." — Paul. 


NEW  TOEK  : 

D.    APPLETON    &  'COMPANY, 

1,  3,  AND  5  BOND   STKEET. 

1880. 


CorrRiGHT,  18S0,  sr  Henrt  Cowles,  Oberlin,  O. 


PREFACE. 


These  Longer  Epistles  of  Paul  are  treated  in  the 
same  general  method  as  the  Shorter.  The  introduction 
to  each  will  present  the  circumstances  under  which  they 
were  written,  the  objects  had  in  view,  and  in  general, 
all  the  points  important  to  be  held  in  mind  for  their  aid 
toward  a  full  understanding  of  these  Epistles. 

Should  my  life  and  health  be  spared  my  next  volume 
will  include  the  two  books  by  Luke ;  his  gospel  history, 
and  his  history  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 

HENRY  COWLES. 

Obeklin,  Ohio,  March,  1880. 


THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS, 


INTRODUCTION. 

This  Epistle  of  Paul,  in  every  sense  great,  has  always 
stood  in  the  canon  at  the  head  of  all  the  Epistles  of  Paul, 
and  usually,  of  all  which  the  canon  embraced.  This  prior 
rank  has  been  due,  not  to  an  earlier  date  ;  but  in  part  to 
its  length  ;  more  to  its  surpassing  preeminence  in  the 
domain  of  theological  doctrine  and  to  its  adaptation  to  a 
higher  grade  of  mind  and  culture  ;  but  perhaps  most  of  all, 
to  the  early  metropolitan  rank  of  the  church  at  Eome. 
The  latter  point  is  a  merely  adventitious  circumstance, 
adding  nothing  to  the  merit  of  the  epistle,  which  how- 
ever, had  no  need  of  adventitious  aid  to  rank  it  first 
among  the  Epistles  of  the  greatest  human  epistolary  writer. 

That  Paul  wrote  this  epistle  has  never  been  questioned. 

It  is  sufficiently  clear  that  he  wrote  it  at  Corinth.  For 
he  sends  the  salutations  of  Gaius  his  host,  i.  e.  with  whom 
he  was  then  living  (16  :  23),  this  Gaius  being  one  of  the 
very  few  whom  Paul  baptized  in  Corinth,  his  home  (1  Cor. 
1  :  14).  Moreover  it  is  currently  assumed,  and  apparently 
with  good  reason,  that  Paul  sent  this  epistle  by  the  hand 
of  Phebe,  a  deaconess  of  the  church  at  Cenchrea  which 
was  a  suburb  of  Corinth,  in  as  much  as  he  specially  com- 
mends her  to  their  christian  confidence  (16  :  1,  2).  Erastus 
who  held  an  office  in  the  city  where  Paul  wrote  this  epistle 
(Rom.  16  :  23)  seems  to  have  been  at  home  in  Corinth, 
(2  Tim.  4  :  20). 

In  regard  to  the  date  of  this  epistle,  the  internal  evi- 
dence is  not  less  decisive.  It  was  finished  as  he  was  on 
the  point  of  leaving  Corinth  to  visit  Jerusalem  and  bear 
with  him  a  contribution  recently  made  by  the  churches  of 
Achaia  (Greece)  and  of  Macedonia,  for  the  relief  of  the 
suffering  saints  there.  (Rom.  15  :  25,  2G).  This  collection 
among  those  churches  for  the  poor  at  Jerusalem  held  a 


2  INTRODUCTION. 

large  place  in  the  loving  heart  and  active  hand  of  this  great 
apostle,  of  which  we  see  delightful  traces  in  both  of  his 
epistles  to  Corinth  (1  Cor.  16:  1,  and  2  Cor.  chapters  8  and 
9.)  Luke  helps  us  to  identify  tliis  journey  to  Jerusalem, 
as  the  last  he  made  prior  to  his  arrest  and  long  detention 
as  a  prisoner,  first  at  Cesarea  and  next  at  Rome.  (Compare 
Acts  19:  21  and  20  :  22  and  especially  21 :  17).  Inasmuch 
as  this  journey  was  planned  to  bring  him  to  Jerusalem  by 
the  Pentecost  (early  spring),  and  it  was  at  that  very  time 
that  his  long  confinement  began,  we  must  fix  the  date  of 
the  epistle  during  the  first  months  of  A.  D.  58. 

The  antecedent  history  of  this  church  at  Rome  should 
receive  attention.  It  was  not  planted  by  Paul.  Indeed 
at  this  writing  he  had  not  been  there,  but  wrote  to  them 
that  his  manifold  labors  in  preaching  the  gospel  to  Gentiles 
had  much  hindered  him  from  coming  to  them,  though  he 
had  "had  these  many  years  a  great  desire  to  go  to  them, 
(15  :  22,  23),  and  hoped,  when  his  then  pending  journey 
to  Jerusalem  should  have  been  accomplished,  that  he  might 
call  upon  them  on  his  ^^ay  to  Spain  (15  :  24-29).  But  it 
often  happens  that  tlie  best  men  propose  things  one  way 
and  God  disposes  in  another.  So  Paul's  visit  to  Rome 
came  about  much  otherwise  than  he  was  then  planning. 

At  the  time  of  Paul's  writing,  this  church  seems  to 
have  had  some  maturity  of  years,  since  it  contained  among 
its  members,  Paul's  "  well  beloved  Epenetus,  the  first 
fruits  of  Achaia  unto  Christ  "  ;  also  Andronicus  and  Junia, 
'•'his  kinsman,"  who,  he  remarks,  "were  in  Christ  before 
me."  But  it  is  not  safe  to  assume  that  these  members  had 
lived  all  their  lives,  or  even  all  the  christian  portion,  at 
Rome.  The  Jewish  population  there  had  been  specially 
fluctuating.  Tlie  Emperor  Claudius  (reigned  A.D.  41  to 
54)  had  once  expelled  all  Jews  from  Rome  (Acts  18:2);  yet 
Jews  were  soon  there  again.  If,  as  some  suppose,  the  dis- 
turbances which  were  the  alleged  ground  of  this  expul- 
sion had  their  origin  in  controversies  over  Christianity,  it 
would  seem  to  follow  that  Christianity  was  there  quite 
early. 

As  to  the  original  planting  of  that  church,  some  seed 
may  have  fallen  there  from  that  broad-cast  sowing  at  the 
great  Pentecost,  when  among  others  from  the  civilized 
world  at  that  age  were  "  strangers  from  Rome,"  i.  e.  persons 
sojourning  there,  of  whom  some   were  Jews  and  others 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

proselytes.  (Acts  2  :  10).     The  details  of  its  early  history 
however  are  on  no  known  record. 

It  is  one  of  the  incidents  of  civilization  that  a  great 
metrojDolitan  city  must  have  to  a  certain  extent  a  change- 
ful population.  Under  this  law  it  came  to  pass  that  Paul 
had  become  personally  acquainted  elsewhere  with  a  very 
considerable  group  of  their  church  members.  In  his  clos- 
ing chapter  (16:)  he  sent  his  personal  salutations  to  twenty- 
seven  by  name,  besides  sundry  others  included  under  gen- 
eral descriptions.  Noticeably  his  old  friends,  Priscilla  and 
Aquila,  are  there  (IG:  3,4)  whom  we  met  first  at  Corinth 
(Acts  18:  2)  then  but  recently  driven  out  from  Rome  ;  who 
appear  not  long  after  atEphesus  (Acts  IS:  26)  ;  who  were 
back  from  their  Ephesian  residence  to  Rome  again  at  the 
date  of  this  epistle  ;  but  are  saluted  again  and  last  of  all 
at  Ephesus,  in  Paul's  latest  epistle  (2  Tim.  4:  19).  To 
trace  the  local  homes  of  this  well  known  family  wiil  give 
us  some  conception  of  the  changes  of  residence  which  the 
exigencies  of  business  forced  upon  families  engaged  in  a 
small  way  in  manufacture  and  commerce.  To  the  honor 
of  this  family  be  it  said  that  frequent  as  their  removals 
were,  they  took  their  Christianity  with  them,  everywhere 
faithful  to  Christ  and  full  of  service  to  his  cause. 

Such  were  some  of  the  materials  of  the  church  in  this 
metropolitian  city.  Paul's  personal  acquaintance  with  them 
had  been  commenced  elsewhere  than  in  Rome.  Beyond 
this  personal  knowledge  of  certain  individuals  of  that 
church  Paul  knew  the  rest  only  as  he  knew  their  general 
characteristics.  The  Jewish  portion — apparently  the  largest 
element — he  knew  very  thoroughly  because  he  knew  him- 
self. His  own  early  Pharisaic  life,  beliefs,  ideas,  lay  too 
deep  in  his  experience  to  be  ever  forgotten.  Remarkably  it 
is  true  that  the  great  theological  discussions  in  this  letter 
hinge  upon  the  Pharisaic  system.  Their  notions  of  law,  of 
righteousness,  of  the  grounds  of  acceptance  before  God, 
gave  occasion  to  the  great  theological  argument  of  this 
epistle.  To  such  an  extent  is  this  the  case  that  it  may  be 
truly  said  in  one  word  that  the  Tcey  to  the  just  interpretation 
of  the  epistle  lies  in  the  Pharisee.  To  comprehend  the 
Pharisee  of  that  age  is  to  hold  the  key  to  the  significance, 
the  objects,  the  bearings,  of  this  most  argumentative  epis- 
tle. To  this,  therefore,  we  shall  have  occasion  to  refer 
often  in  our  detailed  examination  of  his  argument. 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

It  conduced,  probably  to  the  metliod  and  perfection  of 
this  argument  that  Paul's  mind  was  diverted  but  little  if 
at  all  from  his  great  theme  by  any  personal  matters  existing 
in  that  church.  That  is,  he  was  in  a  condition  to  write  an 
essay  uj^on  the  relations  of  Pharisaism  to  Christianity,  with 
no  local  matters  to  disturb  the  pure  and  simple  logic  of  his 
thought.  Such  local  matters  might  have  been  sprung  upon 
him  if  he  had  lived,  though  but  temporarily,  among  them. 
Fortunately  for  the  unity,  the  compactness,  the  perfect 
logic  of  this  treatise,  he  had  full  and  undistracted  scope 
for  his  discussion. 

Another  feature  of  this  epistle  will  arrest  every  thought- 
ful reader  ; — viz.  that  Paul  adapted  the  intellectual  tone  of 
his  discussion  to  a  grade  of  mind  quite  above  the  average. 
He  wrote  as  if  he  had  in  his  eye  readers  of  more  than  or- 
dinary culture,  capable,  therefore,  of  comprehending  pro- 
found investigation  and  sound,  thorough  logic.  Possibly 
if  he  had  lived  at  Eome  awhile  in  personal  contact  with 
that  church,  the  world  would  have  missed  the  lofty  intel- 
lectual tone  of  this  discussion,  for  his  ideal  Roman  church 
may  have  been  quite  above  the  actual,  and  a  sensible  writer 
could  do  no  otherwise  than  adjust  himself  to  his  ideal. 
Paul  seems  to  have  thought  of  Eome  as  the  brain-centre 
of  the  civilized  world  of  that  age, — the  place  whither  high- 
est culture  and  acutest  thought  had  been  attracted  ;  aud 
he  therefore  wrote  accordingly.  Fortunately  it  is  of  no 
consequence  to  us  whether  his  actual  Roman  readers  were 
or  were  not  below  his  ideal.  The  result  lives,  and  has  come 
down  along  the  ages  to  task  the  best,  the  clearest  and  the 
most  logical  thought  in  all  subsequent  generations — a  store- 
house of  theological  truth — its  elements  elaborated  pro- 
foundly, discussed  thoroughly,  wrought  into  system  as  by 
a  master's  hand. 

The  question  has  been  often  asked  whether  Paul's  ideal 
readers  were  mainly  Jew  or  Gentile.  The  truth  seems  to 
be  that  while  the  Gentile  is  here,  he  is  here  only  in  his 
heathenism  ;  in  its  moral  guilt  because  of  his  violation  of 
the  law  of  reason  and  conscience,  and  in  its  unspeakable 
vices.  The  Gentile  is  not  here  with  any  religious  or  the, 
ological  system.  But  the  Jew  is.  The  Jew  is  here  as  the 
somewhat  cultured  and  certainly  well  developed  Pharisee. 
He  has  his  religious  system,  clear-cut,  well  put  together, 
definite  enough  in  its  doctrines,  albeit  fearfully  pernicious 


INTRODUCTION.  5 

because  ministering  so  mightily  to  pride  and  self-right- 
eousness, and  because  so  thoroughly  hostile  to  the  gospel 
scheme. 

It  results,  therefore,  that  the  great  theological  discus- 
sion in  this  epistle  contemplates,  not  Gentile  readers  but 
Jewish — the  real  Pharisee.  We  cannot  hold  this  fact  in 
mind  too  prominently  as  we  canvass  Paul's  great  argument. 

Any  truth  is  seen  most  clearly  when  put  in  clear,  sharp 
contrast  with  its  antithetic  error.  This  law  of  intellectual 
light  comes  into  play  admirably  in  the  logical  portion  of 
this  epistle.  For  here,  the  Christian  system  stands  in  jire- 
cisely  this  clear,  sharp  contrast  with  the  great  errors  of  the 
Pharisaic  system.  The  religious  system  of  the  Pharisee 
was — Salvation  hy  works  of  personal  rigliteousness  ; — in- 
deed a  complete  salvation  by  these  works  alone  ;  a  salva- 
tion which  brought  him  Justification  before  God,  and  also 
salvation  from  sin  itself.  That  is,  he  found  in  his  system 
(as  he  most  erroneously  supposed)  both  justification  and 
sanctification. 

It  devolved  therefore  upon  Paul  to  show  (1).  That  he 
did  not  and  could  not  find  either  the  one  or  the  other,  in 
his  works  of  righteousness  ;  and  (2.)  That  these  supreme 
moral  blessings  are  found  in  Christ  alone.  Thus  the  one 
system,  put  in  strong  contrast  with  the  other,  brings  out 
the  sunlight  of  gospel  truth  in  its  full  orbed  glory. 

Of  the  chapters  treating  of  practical  duties  (12-lG),  no 
special  analysis  is  called  for  here.  In  Paul's  thought,  all 
truth  is  in  order  to  goodness.  The  glorious  gospel  of  the 
blessed  God  is  ever  made  to  converge  to  its  focus  upon  a 
holy,  blameless,  loving  Christian  life.  The  supreme  glory 
of  gospel  truth  is  not  that  its  polished  stones  adjust  them- 
selves into  a  glorious  but  abstract  temple,  at  once  beauti- 
ful and  magnificent ;  but  rather  that  it  takes  the  coarse, 
hard,  rough  stones  out  of  their  earthly  quarry,  chips  them 
into  form,  polishes  them  into  beauty,  and  then  builds  them 
into  God's  living  and  everlasting  temple  to  the  glory  of  his 
name  forever. 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS. 


CHAPTER  I, 


The  introduction  alludes  to  the  foregoing  prophecies 
(1,  2)-;  refers  centrally  to  Jesus  as  in  the  line  of  David 
on  his  human  side,  but  on  his  divine,  proved  to  be  the  Son 
of  God  by  his  resurrection  (3,  4) ;  from  him  Paul  had  his 
commission  to  bring  all  nations  to  the  faith  of  Christ  (5) ; 
under  which  gospel  they  had  been  called  in  (6).  The  ad- 
dress with  invocation  of  blessings  (7)  ;  thanks  God  for  their 
widely  known  faith  (8)  ;  testifies  to  his  prayers  in  their 
behalf  and  particularly  that  he  might  yet  visit  them  (9,  10) 
and  for  what  purpose  (11,  12)  ;  would  gladly  have  come 
before  to  bring  them  the  gospel  (13-15)  ;  why  not  ashamed 
of  the  gospel  (16) ;  because  it  reveals  the  righteousness  of 
God  (17) ;  a  matter  most  vital  because  God  has  made 
known  his  wrath  against  all  the  sin  of  knowing  yet  not 
obeying  God  (18,  19)  ;  how  this  applies  to  men  under  the 
light  of  nature  (20,  21)  ;  the  process  of  their  degeneracy 
into  idol  worship  (22,  23)  ;  abandoned  morally  of  God, 
and  why  (24,  25)  ;  to  sink  down  into  basest  lusts  (26,  27); 
reprobated  of  God  and  why  and  unto  what  results  (28-32). 

1.  Paul,  a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  called  to  be  an 
apostle,  separated  unto  the  gospel  of  God, 

2.  (Which  he  bad  promised  afore  by  bis  prop>hets  in 
the  holy  Scriptures,) 

3.  Concerning  his  Son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  wbich 
was  made  of  the  seed  of  David  according  to  the  flesh  ; 

4.  And  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power, 
according  to  the  Spirit  of  holiness,  by  the  resurrectiou 
from  the  dead : 

Seeking  no  higher  honor  than  to  be  servant  of  Christ 
Jesus  ;  called  to  become  an  apostle  ;  set  apart  by  act  of 


8  ROMANS— CHAP.  I. 

God  to  preach  liis  gospel, — he  fitly,  in  addressing  Jewish 
readers,  refers  to  the  predictions  of  this  gospel  and  of  the 
promised  Saviour  by  their  prophets  in  the  holy  Scriptures. 
In  respect  to  this  Son  of  God,  the  vital  facts  are  twofold  ; 
(1)  That  on  the  human  side,  as  to  his  human  nature,  [flesh] 
he  was  in  the  line  of  David  ;  (2)  That  on  his  divine  side, 
he  had  been  defined,  and  by  his  resurrection,  mightily 
proven  to  be  the  Son  of  God  as  to  his  holy  spiritual  nature. 
••  The  spirit  of  holiness"  stands  over  against  ''the  flesh," 
the  relation  of  each  clause  being  indicated  by  the  same 
Greek  proposition  ("'according  to").  Consequently  it 
must  be  spoken  of  his  divine  as  contrasted  with  his  human 
nature.  That  the  decisive,  resistless  proof  of  his  being  the 
recognized  Son  of  God  came  to  man  in  and  through  his 
resurrection,  is  every  where  the  doctrine  of  the  Scriptures, 
(1  Cor.  15:  14;  Heb.  1:  3:— Acts  5:  31  etc. 

5.  By  whom  we  have  received  grace  and  apostleship, 
for  obedience  to  the  faith  among  all  nations,  for  his 
name : 

6.  Among  whom  are  yo  also  the  called  of  Jesus 
Christ : 

T.  To  all  that  be  in  Eome,  beloved  of  God,  called  to  he 
saints :  Grace  to  you,  and  peace,  from  God  our  Father 
and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

"  Grace  and  apostleship  "  two  ideas  and  not  merely  one, 
i.e.  not  merely  the  grace  or  favor  of  becoming  an  apostle  ; 
but  separately  :  (a)  "  Grace  "  in  the  sense  of  that  divine 
mercy  which  found  him  mad  and  lost  in  sin,  yet  brought 
him  to  repentance  and  then  forgave  him  most  freely  :  next 
(b)  The  exalted  privilege  of  being  an  apostle,  to  bring  the 
nations  (Gentiles)  to  accept  the  faith  of  the  gospel  obedi- 
ently to  the  glory  of  his  name. 

Among  these  saved  ones  out  of  the  nations  are  ye,  the 
called  of  Jesus  Christ.  Ye  too  as  well  as  I  have  occasion 
to  recognize  the  mercy  that  has  called  you  as  coming 
through  Christ. 

In  addressing  the  saints  in  Rome  he  reminds  them  that 
they  are  beloved  of  God  and  called  as  saints — i.e.  called 
to  live  the  life  of  holy  men,  worthily  of  their  high  calling. 
Upon  them  all,  he  invokes  "grace "in  the  sense  of  all 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  I.  9 

spivitnal  blessings ;  and  "peace,"  significant  of  its  fruits 
unto  their  blessedness. 

8.  First,  I  thank  nij  God  through  Jesus  Christ  for 
you  all,  that  your  faith  is  spoken  of  throughout  the 
whole  world. 

9.  For  God  is  my  witness,  whom  I  serve  with  my 
spirit  in  the  gospel  of  his  Son,  that  without  ceasing  I 
make  mention  of  you  always  in  my  prayers : 

10.  Making  request,  if  by  any  means  now  at  length  I 
might  have  a  prosperous  journey  by  the  will  of  God  to 
come  unto  you. 

First  of  all  he  thanks  God  that  the  saints  at  Eome,  that 
great  metropolis  of  the  nations,  are  so  nobly  meeting  their 
high  responsibilities  and  improving  their  grand  opportuni- 
ties of  sounding  forth  their  gospel  influence  to  the  ends  of 
the  civilized  world.  All  abroad  their  faith  in  Jesus  had 
become  known.  He  has  the  more  joy  in  this  because  he 
sees  in  their  wide  christian  influence  an  answer  to  his  own 
prayers.  It  is  pleasant  to  him  to  recall  those  prayers.  We 
hear  him  say  ;  God  knows  how  unceasingly  I  have  brought 
your  case  with  distinct  mention  before  his  throne.  Paul's 
words  mean  precisely  this — lioio  unceasingly  I  have  men- 
tioned you  ;  rather  than  ''  that"  I  have.  Particularly,  he 
had  been  praying  that  he  might  be  prospered  yet  to  visit 
them.  Prosperous  journeys  as  he  thought  of  them,  came 
of  God's  gracious  will  and  kindly  guiding  and  prospering 
hand. 

11.  For  I  long  to  see  you,  that  I  may  impart  unto 
you  some  spiritual  gift,  to  the  end  ye  may  be  established  : 

12.  That  is,  that  I  may  be  comforted  together  with 
you  by  the  mutual  faith  both  of  you  and  me. 

Under  this  longing  desire,  first  in  thought,  lay  the  im- 
parting of  some  spiritual  gift — some  of  the  many  and  vari- 
ous charismata,  special  endowments  from  the  Holy  Ghost, 
conferred  by  the  apostles  Avith  prayer  and  imposition  of 
hands.  He  would  rejoice  to  impart  these  ;  but  his  second 
thought  was  that  spiritual  blessings  flow  mutually  and  re- 
ciprocally, in  a  process  of  delightful  giving  and  receiving, 
80  that  he  might  hope  to  receive  as  well  as  to  give.     Their 


10  ROMANS.^CHAP.  I. 

faith  niiglit  help  him,  as  his  might  strengthen  them  ;  at 
least,  this  in  his  view  is  the  best  way  to  put  the  case,  for  it 
might  be  sh'ghtly  unpleasant  to  them  to  think  of  Paul  as 
assuming  to  be  so  high  above  them  as  to  be  only  the  giver 
and  not  in  any  wise  a  receiver  as  well.  Thus  Paul  evinces 
not  only  a  sweet  christian  humility,  but  a  large  measure  of 
that  good  sense  and  quick  perception  of  human  nature 
which  belong  to  really  great  minds. 

13.  Now  I  would  not  have  you  ignorant,  brethren, 
that  oftentimes  I  purposed  to  come  unto  you,  (but  was 
let  hitherto,)  that  I  might  have  some  fruit  among  you 
also,  even  as  among  other  Gentiles. 

14.  I  am  debtor  both  to  the  Greeks,  and  to  the  Bar- 
barians ;  both  to  the  wise,  and  to  the  unwise. 

15.  So,  as  much  as  in  me  is,  I  am  ready  to  preach  the 
gospel  to  you  that  are  at  Rome  also. 

It  might  seem  to  them  strange  that  Paul  had  never  yet 
come  to  Rome  ;  that  knowing  so  well  the  supreme  impor- 
tance of  that  city  as  a  strategic  point  for  his  gospel  work  ; 
that  devoting  himself  for  years  to  the  conquest  of  the  great 
commercial  and  populous  cities  of  the  age,  he  should  thus 
far  have  left  Rome  out.  Therefore  he  would  have  them 
understand  tliat  this  omission  came  from  no  lack  of  appre- 
ciation of  their  city,  from  no  pique  against  the  dear  saints 
there,  from  no  lack  of  love  for  them  personally,  and  no 
lack  of  purpose  and  plan  to  go  ;  but  that  over  and  over  his 
efforts  had  been  thwarted.  His  broad  obligation  to  preach 
the  gospel  to  the  Avhole  Gentile  world  distinctly  embraced 
the  population  of  great  Rome.  Most  gladly  would  he  leap 
forward  to  fulfil  ic. 

16.  For  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel  of  Christ : 
for  it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one 
that  believeth ;  to  the  Jew  first,  and  also  to  the  Greek. 

Especially  he  would  say  with  strongest  emphasis  that 
his  omission  to  visit  them  was  by  no  means  because  he  was 
ashamed  of  this  gospeL  Rome  he  knew  was  a  proud  city  ; 
and  the  name  of  the  crucified  Nazarene  of  Galilee  could 
not  be  popular  and  welcome  there.  Unmeasured  reproach 
would  naturally  befal  him  were  he  to  lift  up  that  cross  and 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  I.  11 

name  as  his  banner  before  the  aristocracy  and  wealth  and 
culture  of  that  great  city ; — but  never  the  first  sense  of 
shame  should  tinge  his  cheek  or  touch  his  sensibilities. 
Kather  this  gospel  should  be  his  highest  glory,  for  in  it 
there  lay  embodied  and  embosomed  the  glorious  power  of 
God  unto  the  salvation  of  men,  whether  Jew  or  Gentile. 
Grandly  does  Paul  assume  that  among  all  the  interests  and 
goods  of  earth  there  is  nothing  to  be  compared  with  the 
soul's  salvation — the  real  saving  of  men  from  sin  and  bring- 
ing them  into  the  purity  of  truth  and  the  unselfishness  of 
love  ; — into  the  blessed  sympathies  of  heart-communion 
with  the  Infinite  God.  So  that  no  work  can  be  worthier  and 
no  labor  more  sublime  than  to  bo  accumulating  and  wield- 
ing those  forces  which  bring  men  out  of  their  moral  dark- 
ness into  God's  glorious  light, — lifting  their  lost  souls  out  of 
moral  ruin  into  God's  great  salvation.  Therefore  it  is  that 
he  glories  in  the  gospel  of  Christ,  for  God  works  in  it  and 
through  it  with  his  effective  power  toward  and  xtnto  this 
salvation. 

On  this  passage  the  reader's  attention  should  be  called 
particularly  to  the  three  following  points  :  (1.)  That  in 
and  with  this  gospel  there  goes  a  power  of  God  working 
unto  the  salvation  of  men, — ai:)ower  which  is  here  and  not 
elsewhere,  which  is  so  thoroughly  involved  in  this  gospel 
that  Paul  declares  the  gospel  itself  to  be  that  poiuer.  This 
is  a  truth  of  surpassing  interest  and  value.  (2.)  That  this 
power  avails  not  to  the  salvation  of  all  men,  but  only,  of 
*'  every  man  that  delieveth.'^  Paul  might  have  left  out  this 
limitation  if  the  truth  in  the  case  would  have  borne  the 
omission,  and  doubtless  he  would.  But  this  limitation  is 
a  prime  condition  of  the  gospel  as  he  held  and  taught  it — 
salvation,  not  to  all  men  but  only  to  ''every  one  that  be- 
lieveth."  Paul  knew  very  well  that  gospel  truth,  like  all 
other  truth,  must  be  helieved  before  it  can  have  moral  force 
on  human  souls.  He  will  have  some  things  to  say  soon 
about  truth  "  held  in  unrighteousness" — held  indeed,  but 
held  doivn  and  held  back  so  that  its  moral  power  on  the 
soul  is  worse  than  merely  paralyzed.  (3.)  This  is  the  first 
pivotal  text  of  the  epistle ;  propounds  the  first  cardinal 
truth  in  the  goodly  system  which  this  epistle  will  present 
and  discuss. 

17.  For  therein  is  the  righteousness  of  God  revealed 


12  ROMANS.— CHAP.  I, 

from  faitli  to  faitli :  as  it  is  written,  The  just  shall  live 
by  faith. 

This  is  the  second  pivotal  passage  of  the  epistle,  hold- 
ing in  its  nut-shell  form  the  grand  truth  of  justification 
by  faith  as  opposed  to  the  Pharisaic  scheme  of  justification 
by  works  of  law.  This  passage,  being  thoroughly  vital  to 
the  whole  epistle  and  withal  somewhat  difiicult  by  reason 
of  its  conciseness,  should  be  carefully  expounded. 

I  understand  Paul  to  say  that  in  this  gospel  God  has 
revealed  to  men  his  mode  of  justifying  sinners  ;  viz.  Ijy  and 
tlirougli  their  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  This  he  expresses 
tersely  in  the  words — "'from  faith  to  faith" — in  the  sense 
that  it  proceeds  or  comes  from  faith  ;  and  enures  to  the 
salvation  of  all  men  of  faith — all  true  believers.  This  jus- 
tification turns  on  faith  as  its  condition  ;  it  requires  faith 
and  never  can  fail  of  being  given  to  all  who  truly  believe. 

The  maJie-vj)  and  shaping  of  this  pregnant  phrase — 
'\from  faith  to  faith  ^^ — seems  to  have  sacrificed  somewhat 
of"  clearness  for  the  sake  of  brevity.  Perhaps  we  may  say, 
Paul  sought  a  formula  which  should  embody  the  grand 
central  truth  of  the  gospel  system  in  the  fewest  possible 
words,  making  a  phrase  which  might  live  in  the  memory, 
easily  remembered  ;  never  forgotten. 

That  we  must  take  the  words  "  to  faith,"  not  in  their 
abstract  sense,  i.  e.  to  faith  considered  as  a  mental  state  or 
act,  but  in  their  concrete  sense,  i.  e.  to  the  men  of  faith, 
those  who  truly  believe,  is  sufficiently  clear  from  his  proof 
text  out  of  Hab.  2.  4  ;  where  "  the  just "  are  certainly  men 
in  the  concrete  ;  just,  good  men,  who  have  life  before  God 
through  and  by  their  faith.* 

It  is  certain  therefore  that  Paul  was  tliinking  of  faith 
in  Christ  as  enuring  to  the  salvation  of  the  men  of  faith, 
real  believers. 

To  go  back  for  the  moment  to  the  standard  phrase — 
''  the  righteousness  of  God"  we  cannot  take  it  in  the  sense 
of  God's  attribute  of  justice,  abstractly  considered  ;  for  the 
following  reasons  ;  (1.)  The  word  for  that  idea  should 
have  been  dikaioma  (as  in  v.  32  below)  and  not  as  here 

*  This  seems  to  be  the  precise  sliade  of  meaning  in  the  Greek 
words  which  Paul  uses  ;  for  if  he  had  meant  precisely,  the  men 
justified  by  faitli  shall  live,  the  participle  dilcaiomcnos  rather  than 
the  adjective  dikaios  should  have  been  his  word. 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  I  13 

dikaiosune. — (2.)  The  sense — abstract  justice — does  not 
correspond  to  the  facts  of  the  case  ;  for  it  was  not  the  par- 
ticular mission  of  the  gospel  scheme  to  reveal  the  abstract 
justice  of  God,  but  rather  his  great  mercy. — (3.)  The  gos- 
pel did  purposely  and  most  wonderfully  reveal  God's 
scheme  for  making  sinful  men  righteous  and  accepted  as 
such  before  him.  It  reveals  the  great  central  fact  that  such 
justification  comes  through  faitli  and  avails  unto  all  men 
of  faith, — (4.)  Finally,  this  exposition  of  the  phrase — "  the 
righteousness  of  God  " — is  fully  sustained  by  Paul's  subse- 
quent use  and  explanation  of  it.  (e.  g.  3  :  21-2G).  Espe- 
cially v.  21,  22.  "  But  now  the  righteousness  of  God  with- 
out law  is  manifested,  being  witnessed  by  the  law  and  the 
prophets  ;  Even  tlic  righteousness  of  God  which  is  by  faith 
of  Jesus  Christ." — This  mode  of  justifying  sinners  is  called 
GocVsvciodie — God's  righteousness — for  the  good  reason  that 
it  originated  with  God,  not  with  man  ;  is  provided  by  God, 
not  by  man  ;  emanating  from  God's  wisdom  and  from  his 
great  love,  and  not  from  any,  even  the  least,  merit  on  the 
part  of  man. 

In  further  defining  this  righteousness  of  God  as  being 
God's  mode  of  making  believers  righteous  before  him,  it 
cannot  be  amiss  to  anticipate  here,  what  Paul  will  bring 
out  very  distinctly  further  on,  and  say  that  it  includes  more 
than  mere  forgiveness  of  their  sins,  more  than  merely  show- 
ing or  declaring  them  to  be  accepted  as  righteous.  The 
additional  element — one  of  extremely  vital  value — is  that 
of  converting  men  from  wickedness  unto  intrinsic  righteous- 
ness of  heart  and  life.  God  does  not  declare  and  show 
them  to  be  righteous  until  they  are  radically  and  funda- 
mentally transformed  unto  righteousness.  Kegeneration 
and  repentance  are  thoroughly  involved  in  this  system  as 
preliminary  conditions,  without  which  there  can  be  no 
gospel  justification.  In  chapter  6-8,  Paul  will  elaborate 
these  elements  of  the  gospel  scheme  very  thoroughly,  as  we 
shall  see. 

18.  For  the  wrath  of  God  is  revealed  from  heaven 
against  all  ungodliness  and  iinrigliteousuess  of  men,  who 
hold  the  truth  in  unrigliteousness. 

It  is  entirely  obvious  that  v.  18  is  closely  correlated  to 
V.  17,  using  the  same  staple  words.     "  The  righteousness 


14  KOMANS.  -CHAP.  I. 

of  God  is  revealed" — opens  v.  17  ;  '•'  the  wrath  of  God  is 
revealed  "  leads  the  thought  in  this  v.  18.  But  noticeably, 
the  former — God's  mode  of  making  men  righteous — is  said 
to  be  revealed  in  the  gospel  {''  therein  ") ;  but  the  wrath  of 
God  is  not  said  to  be  revealed  particularly  in  this  gospel. 
Eather,  Paul  says — This  is  revealed  ^' from  heaven.''  He 
does  not  arrest  his  course  of  thought  to  describe  to  us  the 
various  or  the  special  modes  in  which  God  makes  this  reve- 
lation, although  some  of  its  manifestations  are  referred  to 
below  (vs.  35,  26,  28),  which  speak  of  God's  righteously 
giving  men  up  to  self-reprobation  so  that  their  sin  works 
out  its  natural  results  of  more  and  more  deep  depravity, 
debasement  and  crime. 

But  let  the  reader  be  careful  to  note  that  the  gospel 
scheme  does  and  forever  must  assume  God's  deep,  eternal 
displeasure  against  sin.  Jesus  came,  not  to  call  righteous 
men  but  sinners,  to  repentance.  God's  wrath  is  no  cause- 
less passion  ;  no  selfish  irritation  ;  no  effervescence  of  hate. 
It  is  only  the  deep  abhorrence  of  a  holy  soul  against  wrong; 
the  irrepressible  displeasure  which  infinite  benevolence 
must  feel  toward  all  ungodliness  and  uni'ighteousness. 
Because  God's  character  is  so  positively  and  intensely  good, 
it  is  simply  a  necessity  of  his  moral  nature  that  he  should 
dislike,  loathe,  condemn,  all  that  is  ungodly,  unlike  his 
own  loving  spirit ;  all  that  is  unrighteous  ;  that  is  to  say, 
which  recklessly  tramples  on  the  rights  of  others  equally 
valuable  as  its  own. 

To  misconstrue  and  pervert  what  the  scriptures  say  of 
God's  "  VN^rath  against  sin  "  is  unpardonably  abusive  to  God 
and  fearfully  perilous  to  the  souls  of  men.  Hence  these 
few  words  of  explanation  are  in  place  for  the  double  pur- 
pose of  truth  and  light  to  those  who  will  receive  it,  and  of 
solemn  warning  to  those  who  despise  it. 

Those  men  of  ungodliness  against  whom  God's  wrath 
is  revealed  from  heaven  are  further  described  here  as 
"  holding  the  truth  in  unrighteousness.''  In  closely  defin- 
ing this  phrase  we  must  choose  between  two  somewhat  dif- 
ferent senses  of  the  verb,  '"hold;" — (a.)  Holding  and 
continuing  to  hold  the  truth,  yet  in  and  with  the  practice 
of  unrighteousness  ;  i.  e.  living  still  in  sin,  despite  of  their 
knowledge  of  God's  truth  :  Or  (b.)  Holding  doiun,  sup- 
pressing the  truth,  by  resisting  its  claims  because  of  their 
unrighteousness. 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  I.  15 

The  latter  is  to  be  preferred  as  most  surely  the  real  sense 
of  Paul's  word — (1)  Because  this  verb  means,  not  merely 
holding  but  holding  down.'^' 

But  (2)  and  especially,  because  the  entire  drift  of  the 
subsequent  context  goes  to  develop  this  very  process  of 
holding  down  the  truth,  resisting  its  demands  ;— "  changhig 
the  truth  of  God  into  a  lie  ;  "  not  "glorifying  God  as  God 
and  not  being  thankful ;"  not  "loving  to  retain  God  in 
their  knowledge."  Ilence  it  becomes  very  certain  that 
Paul  did  not  think  of  Avicked  men  as  continuing  to  hold 
the  truth  of  God  in  the  midst  of  their  sinning,  but  rather, 
as  suppressing,  perverting,  and  changing  it  to  a  lie,  and 
thus  almost  utterly  paralyzing  its  legitimate  moral  power 
upon  their  heart.  This  will  appear  very  clearly  as  we 
proceed. 

19.  Because  that  wliicli  may  be  known  of  God  is 
manifest  in  them ;  for  God  hath  shewed  it  unto  them. 

In  V.  18.  Paul  had  assumed  that  wicked  men  have  some 
real  knowledge  of  God  wliich  in  their  wickedness  they  per- 
vert and  suppress.  This  being  a  thoroughly  vital  point, 
he  here  confirms  that  assumption. 

His  language  is  very  expressive,  but  not  easily  trans- 
lated into  fully  equivalent  English  words.  It  may  be  put 
thus  :  Because  the  knowable  character  of  God — that  in 
God  which  is  knowable  to  mortals — is  plain  to  them,  for 
God  has  made  it  plain.  This  means  that  certain  of  the 
great  and  most  vital  elements  in  God's  being  and  character 
are  made  plain  to  men  by  God's  purposed  revelation  of 
himself.  Paul  proceeds  to  explain  what  man  does  know  of 
God  and  how  he  abuses  this  knowledge  and  totally  with- 
stands the  influence  it  should  legitimately  have  upon  his 
soul. 

20.  For  the  invisible  things  of  him  from  the  crea- 
tion of  the  world  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by 
the  things  that  are  made,  even  his  eternal  power  and 
Godhead ;  so  that  they  are  without  excuse : 

In  brief  paraphrase — thus  :  For  ever  since  the  creation 
of  the  world,  God's  invisible  attributes  are  distinctly  seen. 


16  ROMANS.— CHAP.  I. 

being  apprehended  by  the  human  mind  in  his  created 
works — these  invisible  attributes  being  his  eternal  power 
and  Deity.  This  pregnant  sentence,  most  compactly, 
tersely  put,  holds  that  God's  otherwise  invisible  attributes 
have  become  in  a  sense  visible  to  men  ever  since  his  crea- 
tion of  visible  matter  before  their  eyes  ; — indeed,  have  be- 
come very  distinctly  visible,  being  mentally  apprehended 
under  the  normal  action  of  the  human  intelligence  ("  nous'") 
in  and  by  means  of  God's  created  woi'ks.  Then  Paul  is 
careful  to  say  that  those  invisible  attributes  of  which  he 
speaks  are  precisely  God's  eternal  power  and  his  Godhead, 
his  real  Deity.  Beyond  all  question,  God's  works  of  crea- 
tion manifest  his  boundless  power  and  his  truly  divine  at- 
tributes. None  but  a  God  can  create  at  all,  giving  exist- 
ence where  no  existence  was  before  ;  and  yet  more,  none 
but  a  God  could  create  worlds  of  such  vastness,  majesty, 
beauty,  glory.  So  that,  if  men  do  not  see  God  in  these 
great  works  of  his  it  must  be  because  they  will  not.  Not 
to  see  God  in  these  works  is  inexcusable  guilt — as  Paul 
proceeds  to  show. 

On  the  sense  of  the  word  '\from  "  in  the  clause — "from 
the  creation  of  the  world  " — whether  it  be  temporal  [ever 
since  in  time],  or  logical  \^\from  "  as  the  source  and  foun- 
tain of  knowledge],  it  would  seem  that  both  are  involved, 
the  temporal  sense  primarily,  and  then,  as  a  consequence, 
the  logical ;  that  is,  ever  since  the  creation,  those  visible 
works  have  been  an  open  manifestation  of  God's  eternal 
power  and  Deity,  in  which,  whoever  would,  might  appre- 
hend by  his  intelligence  those  great  qualities  of  the  Infinite 
Maker." 

21  Because  tliat,  wlicn  they  knew  God,  tliey  glorified 
him  not  as  God,  neitlier  were  thankful ;  but  became  vain 
in  tlieir  imaginations,  and  tlieir  foolish  heart  "was  dark- 
ened. 

"  Wlien  they  knew  God  "  is  neither  quite  literal,  nor 
exact.  The  reader  should  be  careful  not  to  put  emphasis 
on  the  word  "when,"  as  if  what  Paul  says  would  aj^ply 
only  in  the  special  case  in  which  men  might  chance  to 
know  God.  What  Paul  said  was  this  :  Because  that, 
knoAving  God,  they  did  not  give  him  the  glory  due  to  him 
as  God.     Paul  certainly  assumes  that  men  do  know  God  ; 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  I.  17 

and  also,  that,  under  the  light  of  this  knowledge, — in  the 
real  possession  of  it,  and  despite  of  its  legitimate  power 
upon  their  souls,  they  yet  withhold  from  God  the  glory 
Avhich  they  know  to  be  rightly  his  due.  This  is  his  first 
terrible  indictment  of  guilt  against  wicked  men, 

^'Neither  were  thankful" — assumes  that  they  know 
God  as  their  benefactor,  and  therefore  as  having  a  rightful 
claim  upon  their  heart  for  thanksgiving.  Noticeably  Paul 
had  said  this  repeatedly  before  in  preaching  the  true  God 
to  heathen  idolaters  ;  i.  e.  At  Lystra  (Acts  14:  11-18)  ; — 
"  AVe  preach  unto  you  that  ye  should  turn  from  these 
vanities  [idols]  unto  the  living  God  who  made  heaven  and 
earth  and  the  sea  and  all  things  that  are  therein  ;  who  has 
thus  left  not  himself  without  witness  in  that  he  did  good, 
and  gave  us  rain  from  heaven  and  fruitful  seasons,  filling 
our  hearts  with  food  and  gladness  :" — and  similarly  on 
Mars  Hin  (Acts  17  :  23-29)  ;  "God  who  made  the  world 
and  all  things  that  are  therein,  seeing  lie  is  Lord  of  heaven 
and  earth,  dwelleth  not  in  temples  made  with  hands  as 
though  he  needed  any  thing,  seeing  he  giveth  to  all  life 
and  breath  and  all  things  ;  .  .  .  for  in  him  we  live  and 
move  and  have  our  being.'* — Thus  Paul  held  that  even 
Avith  no  other  light  than  that  of  nature,  men  might  know 
enough  of  God  to  command  their  reverent  worship  and 
their  gratitude  for  blessings  ever  coming  from  his  hand. 
But  instead  of  rendering  to  God  their  reverent  worship  and 
honest  gratitude,  they  became  vain  in  their  imaginings  and 
their  foolish  heart  (void  of  understanding)  became  dark- 
ened. This  is  Paul's  account — his  philosophy,  we  may 
call  it — of  the  process  by  which  men  become  heathen-idol- 
aters. It  was  not  because  God  had  failed  to  make  a  suf- 
ficient revelation  of  himself  to  save  them  from  this  great 
folly  and  guilt ;  it  was  not  because  by  some  great  misfor- 
tune, very  excusable  on  their  part,  they  had  gravitated 
downward  into  the  worship  of  what  they  foolishly  con- 
ceived to  be  the  good  powers  that  brought  them  blessings; 
but  it  was  because  they  stultified  their  reason,  debased  both 
their  intellectual  and  their  moral  nature  and  so  sunk  them- 
selves into  folly,  darkness  and  crime.  In  this  description 
Paul  uses  words  which  he  found  in  the  Old  Testament,  in 
those  expositions  which  the  prophets  gave  of  the  same 
thing,  viz:  the  degeneration  of  the  human  mind  from  the 
light  of  nature  and  reason  into  the  darkness  of  idolatry. 


18  ROMANS.— CHAP.  I. 

To  understand  Paul,  we  cannot  do  better  tlian  to  go  back, 
as  he  did,  to  their  account  of  this  matter.  Three  specimen 
passages  will  suffice.  We  take  Ps.  115:  2-8  ;  Isa.  41:  9-20 
and  Jer.  10:  2-16. 

To  set  forth  the  blended  folly  and  guilt  of  idol- worship, 
the  Psalmist  says  their  ''  idols  are  not  like  our  God  who  is  in 
the  heavens  and  who  hath  done  all  He  pleased  to  do — but 
are  only  silver  and  gold,  the  work  of  men's  hands  ;  with 
mouths  that  speak  not ;  eyes  that  see  not,  ears  that  hear 
not ;  noses  that  smell  not " — most  utterly  powerless  and 
senseless  ;  and  adds — ''  They  that  make  them  are  like  un- 
to them,"  equally  void  of  sense  and  wisdom;  "and  so  is 
every  one  that  trusteth  in  them."  Idol-makers  and  wor- 
shippers have  sunk  to  the  lowest  depths  of  fatuity  and 
mental  darkness.  Isaiah  shows  us  the  smith  tugging  at 
his  bellows,  blowing  up  his  coals,  forging  with  his  hammer, 
tasking  the  strength  of  his  arm,  till  faint  for  food  and 
wearied  with  toil,  yet  getting  no  help  from  the  gods  he  is 
so  laboriously  manufacturing ;  or,  for  a  wooden  god  he 
grows  his  tree  ;  takes  part  of  it  for  fuel  to  warm  himself, 
a  part  for  cooking  his  dinner  ;  another  part  he  works  into 
a  god,  falls  down  before  it  and  worships,  crying,  "  Deliver 
me,  for  thou  art  my  god!" — but  alas,  he  has  not  sense 
enough  to  say — How  is  this  that  part  of  my  tree  goes  for 
fuel  to  warm  me  ;  part  to  cook  my  dinner, — and  shall  I 
make  the  residue  an  abomination  and  fall  down  in  worship 
before  the  stock  of  a  tree!  "He  feedeth"  (says  Isaiah) 
"  on  ashes  ;  a  deceived  heart  hath  turned  him  aside  that 
he  cannot  deliver  his  soul,  nor  say — Is  there  not  a  lie  in 
my  right  hand  ?  "  This  is  the  way  Isaiah  illustrates  and 
verifies  the  words  of  Paul  ; — "  Became  vain  in  their  im- 
aginings, and  their  senseless  heart  was  darkened." 

"With  somewhat  less  of  keen  biting  sarcasm,  but  not 
any  less  of  solemn  earnestness  and  scorching  rebuke,  Jere- 
miah declares  "  the  customs  of  the  heathen  to  be  vain  ;" 
shows  how  they  cut  their  tree  from  the  forest ;  deck  it 
with  silver  and  gold  ;  fasten  it  with  nails  and  hammer 
that  it  move  not ;  upright  as  the  palm  tree  but  it 
speaks  not ;  needing  to  be  borne  because  it  cannot  go. 
'•  Be  not  afraid  of  them  "  (such  gods  as  they  ! )  "  for  they 
cannot  do  evil,  neither  is  it  in  them  to  do  good.  They 
are  utterly  brutish  and  foolish  ;  they  are  vanity  and  the 
work  of  errors."     Such   was  their  view  of  that  strange, 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  I.  19 

almost  incredible  infatuation  under  which  men  sunk  into 
idolatry. 

23.  Professing  themselves  to  be  wise,  they  became 
fools, 

23.  And  changed  the  glory  of  the  incorruptible  God 
into  an  image  made  like  to  corruptible  man,  and  to  birds, 
and  f  ourf  ooted  beasts,  and  creeping  things. 

As  if  all  unconscious  that  they  were  sinking  into  fatuity, 
still  proud  of  their  wisdom  as  ever  and  only  the  more  in- 
fatuated under  their  self-conceit,  they  substituted  for  the 
glory  of  the  incorruptible  God,  an  image  modeled  after 
perishable  man,  or  even  after  beasts,  birds,  quadrupeds, 
reptiles  !  So  utterly  could  they  pervert  all  just  concep- 
tions of  God  and  supplant  them  with  notions  altogether 
base.  Of  course  Paul  speaks,  not  of  any  real  change 
wrought  in  God,  but  only  of  the  change  produced  in  their 
ideal  conceptions  of  him.  From  their  ideal  of  God,  they 
expelled  all  that  is  noble,  pure,  sublime,  glorious,  and  put 
there  instead,  elements  most  revoltingly  base  and  vile. 
They  did  this  because  they  could  and  because  they  had  a 
motive  for  expelling  from  their  mind  the  true  conception 
of  a  holy  and  righteous  God. 

2-i.  Wherefore  God  also  gave  them  up  to  unclean- 
ness,  through  the  lusts  of  their  own  hearts,  to  dishonor 
their  own  bodies  between  themselves. 

25.  Who  changed  the  truth  of  God  into  a  lie,  and 
worshipped  and  served  the  creature  more  than  the  Cre- 
ator, who  is  blessed  for  ever.     Amen. 

From  this  point  onward  to  the  end  of  the  chapter,  Paul 
shows  how  God  abandoned  idol-worshii)ping  men  to  their 
lusts  and  gave  them  up  to  the  fearful  sway  of  their  miser- 
able infatuation.  Three  times  he  asserts  this  appalling  fact 
in  God's  moral  administration,  returning  to  it  again  and 
again  and  expanding  with  more  and  more  detail, — how, 
abandoned  of  God,  they  sank  morally,  not  only  into  the 
infatuation  of  folly  but  into  the  lowest  baseness  of  vice  and 
crime,  (v.  26,  28.)  First,  God  gave  them  up,  according 
to  the  lust  of  their  heart,  unto  uncleanuess — to  the  dishon- 
oring of  their  own  bodies  among  themselves.  Under  the 
sovereign  sway  of  lust,  what  depth  of  debasement  is  too 


20  ROMANS.— CHAP.  I. 

low  for  man  to  reacli  tliongli  he  be  made  in  the  rational 
image  of  God  ! 

In  the  beginning  of  v.  25,  the  first  Greek  word,  trans- 
lated ''who,"  is  somewhat  more  than  the  mere  relative. 
Panl  wonld  describe  the  men  of  v.  24  a  little  farther — as 
being  men  who  conkl  change  the  true  God  into  a  lie — the 
truth  concerning  God,  into  a  totally  false  conception  of 
him.  It  was  but  fitting  that  God  should  give  them  up  to 
uncleanness,  inasmuch  as  they  were  capable  of  so  pervert- 
ing the  true  idea  of  God.  They  heing  such  men  that  they 
could,  is  the  sense  of  Paul's  word. 

They  could  not  only  pervert  all  true  ideas  of  God  into 
falsehood,  but  they  actually  worshipped  and  served  the 
creature  more  than  the  Creator — rather,  instead  of — to  the 
utter  exclusion  of  all  real  worship  of  the  Creator  who  is 
blessed  forever  ! 

2G.  For  this  cause  God  gave  them  up  unto  vile  affec- 
tions :  for  even  their  women  did  change  the  natural  use 
into  that  which  is  agaipst  nature. 

27.  And  likewise  also  the  men,  leaving  the  natural 
use  of  the  woman,  burned  in  their  lust  one  toward  an- 
other ;  men  with  men  working  that  which  is  unseemly, 
and  receiving  in  themselves  that  recompense  of  their 
error  which  was  meet. 

These  verses  reiterate  and  expand  the  point  put  in  v. 
24,  showing  that  the  innate  modesty  and  purity  of  woman 
are  prostituted,  and  how  med  also  debase  themselves  to  the 
depths  of  shame  to  reap  the  ruin  which  waits  evermore 
upon  abuses  of  nature. 

It  is  one  of  the  sternest  indictments  against  the  cul- 
tured heathenism  of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome  that  men 
high  in  literary  merit  and  peerless  in  poetry,  could  speak 
of  these  debasing  vices  without  a  blush — with  never  a  word 
of  condemnation  or  even  disapproval  ! 

28.  And  even  as  they  did  not  like  to  retain  God  in 
their  knowledge,  God  gave  them  over  to  a  reprobate 
mind,  to  do  those  things  which  are  not  convenient ; 

29.  Being  filled  with  all  unrighteousness,  fornication, 
wickedness,  covetousness,  maliciousness;  full  of  envy, 
murder,  debate,  deceit,  malignity;  whisperers, 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  I.  21 

30.  Backbiters,  liaters  of  God,  despiteful,  proud, 
boasters,  inventors  of  evil  tilings,  disobedient  to  parents, 

31.  Without  understanding:,  covenant-breakers,  with- 
out natural  affection,  implacable,  unmerciful : 

Eeturning  to  the  same  great  fact — the  rationale  of 
heathenism,  with  its  moral  darkness,  debasement  and 
crime,  Paul  makes  the  pivotal  point  in  its  moral  aspect  yet 
more  clear  than  before.  It  was  because  they  did  not  like 
to  retain  God  in  their  knowledge.  They  sought  to  rid 
themselves  of  every  true  conception  of  God.  They  labored 
for  that  full  license  to  sin  which  the  human  mind  can  reach 
only  as  it  expels  God  from  its  thought.  Paul's  carefully 
chosen  words  are — "'  Because  they  did  not  ai^pvove  of  hold- 
ing God  in  their  knowledge,  God  abandoned  them  to  a  dis- 
approved  mind — a  mind  morally  tried  witli  the  presence  of 
truth  and  real  light  concerning  God,  but  found  unwilling 
to  retain  such  knowledge,  perversely  bent  upon  abusing, 
disregarding,  quenching  out,  this  light  from  heaven  ;  and 
therefore  God  abandoned  them  to  a  morally  hardened 
mind,  reprobated  by  its  own  moral  choices  and  under  the 
laws  of  its  own  moral  nature. 

The  result  of  this  is  that  such  minds  are  ripe  for  doing 
all  the  most  unsuitable  things  ["  not  convenient"] — things 
revolting  to  their  high  intellectual  and  moral  nature,  so 
that  they  drift  downward  into  all  the  lowest,  basest  forms 
of  vice  and  crime. 

This  vivid  showing  up  of  heathenism  in  the  concrete 
(as  seen  in  men)  ranges  its  descriptive  terms  into  three 
classes  :  (a)  "  Men  filled  with,"  etc.— (b)  "  Men  full  of," 
&c. — (c)  A  group  of  names  for  special  classes  of  criminals, 
'•backbiters;"  "  haters  of  God,"  etc.,  etc.  Of  this  entire 
description,  we  scarcely  need  to  say  more  than  this  : — that 
the  list  is  appalling  ;  that  human  language  has  been  nearly 
exhausted  of  its  names  for  the  lowest  vices  and  most  dread- 
ful crimes  ;  and  finally  that  dark  as  the  catalogue  is,  the 
facts  of  heathen  life,  wherever  seen,  sustain  the  indict- 
ment as  by  no  means  extravagant,  but  quite  within  the 
truth.  Paul  does  not  mean  to  say  that  every  heathen  man 
becomes  thus  fearfully  base  and  vicious  ;  but  that  these 
vices  abound  as  the  natural  result  of  rejecting  and  debasing 
the  true  knowledge  of  God. 

32.  Who,  knowing  the  judgment  of  God,  that  they 
2 


22  ROMAXS.-CIIAP.  I. 

whicli  commit  siicli  tilings  are  worthy  of  deatli,  not  only 
do  tlie  same,  but  liave  pleasure  in  tliem  tliat  do  them. 

The  first  [Greek]  ''  who  "  is  the  same  as  in  y.  25  above, 
with  tiie  same  special  significance,  viz..  these  heing  men 
who  hnoio  the  just  judgments  of  God,  that  they  who  do 
such  things  are  worthy  of  death.  AVell  knowing  this,  they 
yet  not  only  do  these  Avicked  deeds  but  approve  and  de- 
light in  those  who  do  them.  That  is,  without  even  the 
small  apology  which  the  presence  and  power  of  temptation 
are  supposed  to  lend  for  crime,  they  sustain  these  men  of 
crime  by  their  good  will  and  their  social  influence.  Thus 
those  who  ought  to  be  the  better  portion  of  the  heathen 
world  lend  their  social  influence  to  support  the  whole  sys- 
tem. They  never  make  solid  front  against  the  horrible 
vices  engendered  by  this  ignoring  of  God  and  this  supplant- 
ing of  his  name,  his  worship  and  his  law,  by  putting  in  its 
stead  idolatrous  heathenism.  And  so  it  comes  to  pass  that 
this  system  has  no  self-recuperating  power.  Whole  nations 
of  men  sink  under  it  into  depths  of  moral  debasement,  out 
of  which,  of  themselves  and  apart  from  all  special  light 
coming  from  God  and  his  people,  they  never  rise. 

Pausing  here  a  moment  to  consider  the  objects  had  in 
view  by  the  writer  in  this  discussion  of  the  sin,  the  folh/, 
and  the  immediate  causes  of  idolatrous  heathenism,  we  can- 
not fail  to  see — 

(1.)  That  he  meant  to  show  their  need  of  that  gospel 
wdiich  it  was  his  high  commission  to  preach  to  the  Gentiles. 
He  would  shew,  not  only  that  they  are  awfully  deep  in  de- 
basement, vice  and  crime,  but  that  they  have  no  self-recu- 
perative power,  and  will  never  of  their  own  motion  emerge 
from  their  debasement — never,  save  under  the  redeeming 
forces  of  the  glorious  gospel. 

(2.)  He  would  show  that  their  debasement  was  in  no 
proper  sense  their  misfortune  rather  than  their  fault,  but 
directly,  immediately,  the  fruit  of  their  sin-loving,  and 
truth-hating  spirit  ; — because  they  did  not  like  to  retain 
God  in  their  knowledge,  and  because  their  wicked  heart 
drifted  with  such  fearful  power  toward  and  unto  the  low- 
est depths  of  moral  debasement  and  sin. 

(3.)  Remarkably,  as  Paul  puts  the  case  here,  the 
"point  of  departure"  from  which  men  began  to  degen- 
erate into  disowning  the  true  God,  Casting  off  his  fear, 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  I.  23 

changing  the  glory  of  the  invisible  God  into  images  of  all 
earthly  and  base  things,  was  from  such  light  of  nature 
as  did  reveal  to  them  God's  eternal  power  and  Deity,  and 
also  his  real  beneficence  toward  his  creature  man.  This 
assumes  that  even  with  no  light  from  a  written  revelation, 
men  are  without  excuse  if  they  withhold  from  the  true 
God  the  reverent  worship  due  to  their  known  Creator  and 
their  real  and  certain  Benefactor. 

Thus  Paul  answers  the  question  often  asked  in  our 
age  :  What  about  the  heathen  ?  Having  had  no  fair  chance 
yet  of  knowing  God  and  reaching  salvation,  ought  they 
not  to  have  another  probation  ?  Can  it  be  just  in  God  to 
bring  upon  them  retribution  for  their  sin — the  poor  unfor- 
tunate creatures  having  had  so  poor  a  probation — a  light 
so  dim  ;  a  chance  for  themselves  so  very  meager  ?  It  is 
not  perhaps  clear  whether  such  questions  had  fallen  on  the 
ear  of  Paul,  but  it  is  very  clear  how  he  would  have  an- 
swered them. 


-sOj- 


CHAPTER  II. 

Paul  turns  to  those  who  condemn  the  sins  of  the  hea- 
then but  commit  tlie  same  sins  themselves  (1-3)  ;  who  des- 
pise God's  rich  goodne&s  as  if  not  conscious  that  this  should 
lead  them  to  repentance  (4) ;  who  treasure  up  wrath  for 
themselves  in  the  day  of  God's  rendering  justice  to  all 
(5,  6) ;  to  the  well-doers,  eternal  life  ;  but  to  ill-doers,  only 
wrath,  whether  they  be  Jews  or  Gentiles  (7-11)  ;  treats 
separately  the  case  of  those  who  sin  without  the  written 
law,  and  those  who  sin  under  such  law  (12-lG) ;  then  more 
definitely,  the  case  of  Jews  who  have  the  written  law  and 
assume  to  be  able  to  teach  others  (17-20)  ;  yet  teaching 
others  teach  not  themselves  but  sin  against  the  light  they 
have,  to  the  dishonor  of  God's  name  (21-24)  ;  resting  in 
their  circumcision  which,  without  obedience  of  heart,  goes 
for  nothing  (25-29). 

1.  Therefore  thou  art  inexcusable,  O  man,  whosoever 
thou  art  that  judgest :  for  wherein  thou  judgest  another, 


24  ROMANS.-eHAP.  II. 

tlioii  condemnest  thyself ;  for  tliou  tliat  judgest  doest 
tlie  same  things. 

2.  But  we  are  sure  that  the  judgment  of  God  is  ac- 
cording to  truth  against  them  which  commit  such  things. 

It  is  scarcely  doubtful  that  Paul  having  spoken  in 
Chapter  I.  18-32  of  the  idolatrous  heathen,  turns  here  to 
the  case  of  the  Jew, — the  Jew  taught  in  the  law  ;  vain  of 
his  superior  knowledge  ;  haughtily  censorious  and  disdain- 
ful of  the  Gentile,  hut  himself  practicing  the  same  wicked 
deeds,  and  far  more  guilty  because  sinning  against  far 
greater  light. — True,  Paul  was  too  sagacious  to  call  the  Jew 
by  name  at  the  outset,  although  his  name  and  description 
appear  without  concealment  farther  on  (9,  17-29).  It  was 
wiser  at  the  first  to  put  it  as  he  does  ; — "  0  man,  whoso- 
ever thou  art  that  judgest  tliy  pagan  brother,  and  yet  doest 
thyself  the  very  things  thou  dost  condemn  in  him.  Every 
Jewish  reader  must  see  his  own  face  and  heart  in  this  mir- 
ror. His  scorn  of  the  Gentile  was  national,  and  morall}' 
considered,  awfully  guilty  before  God — not  to  say  revolting 
to  all  right-minded  men;  Closely  translated,  Paul's  words 
are  ; — "  In  what  thou  judgest  the  other" — that  other  one 
than  thyself  —  "thou  condemnest  thyself." — v.  2  reads  ; 
— '*'For  we  know" — everybody  knows,  and  no  man  can 
help  knowing  that  the  condemnatory  judgment  of  God 
is  truthful,  righteous,  against  men  who  do  such  things — 
i.e.  who  have  liglit  enough  to  reprobate  the  sin  of  the  hea- 
then, and  yet  depravity  enough  to  perpetuate  the  same 
crimes.  This  is  one  of  the  intuitive  convictions  of  all 
human  minds.  The  guiltiest  Jew  could  not  deny  it,  how- 
ever terribly  this  conviction  must  react  upon  himself  to 
his  own  condemnation. 

3.  And  thinkest  thou  tliis,  O  man,  that  judgest  them 
which  do  such  things,  and  doest  the  same,  that  thou  shalt 
escape  the  judgment  of  God  ? 

Paul  appeals  to  the  Jews'  own  conscience  :  Dost  thou 
think,  in  the  exercise  of  thy  moral  sense  and  powers  of 
reasoning  on  moral  questions — 0  thou  man  who  hast  moral 
light  enough  to  condemn  such  sin,  yet  doest  the  same  thy- 
self— that  thou  canst  escape  the  judgment  of  God  ?  Ut- 
terly unable  to  escape  condemnation  at  the  bar  of  thine 
own  conscience,  canst  thou  hope  to  escape  tlie  condemna- 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  II.  25 

tion  of  God  ?  "'•  If  thy  heart  condemn  thee,  God  is  greater 
than  thy  heart"— and  his  condemnation  is  more  fearfully 
sure  ! 

4.  Or  despisest  thou  tlic  riclies  of  liis  goodness  and 
forbearance  and  longsuliering ;  not  knowing  that  the 
goodness  of  God  leadetli  thee  to  repentance  ? 

"Or" — take  yet  another  view  of  your  case.  Turning 
for  the  moment  from  the  judgment  you  form  against  Gen- 
tile sinners  and  also  from  your  own  conscious  self-con- 
demnation,— look  into  the  merits  of  the  case — the  very 
nature  of  your  sin.  Toward  yourselves  God  has  manifested 
his  goodness,  forbearance  and  long-suffering  in  most  exu- 
berant richness.  Dost  thou  make  light  of  this, — literally, 
think  down  upon  it  as  a  matter  of  the  least  possible  ac- 
count, worth  scarce  a  thought  and  no  practical  regard — all 
as  if  thou  wert  utterly  unaware,  all  unconscious,  that  the 
goodness  of  God  legitimately  leads  to  repentance — was  so 
designed  of  God  in  his  wisdom  and  love  ?  Dost  thou  live 
on  through  long  years  of  life,  all  reckless  of  God's  forbear- 
ance and  long  suifering,  thoughtless  of  his  great  goodness 
toward  thee  ? 

5.  But,  after  thy  hardness  and  impenitent  heart, 
treasurest  up  unto  thyself  wrath  against  the  day  of  wrath 
and  revelation  of  the  righteous  judgment  of  God ; 

6.  Who  will  render  to  every  man  according  to  his 
deeds : 

But,  instead  of  yielding  thyself  to  be  led  to  repentance 
by  God's  marvellous  goodness,  thou  art  following  the  drift 
and  i^roclivities  of  thy  hardened  impenitent  heart,  and  so 
art  treasuring  up  for  thyself  wrath,  to  be  manifested  in  the 
great  day  of  God's  wrath  and  righteous  judgment. 

This  "treasuring  up"  stands  over  against  the  wonder- 
ful riches  of  God's  goodness  (as  in  v.  4).  God  masses  the 
riches  of  his  goodness,  if  so  be  He  may  draw  men  to  repen- 
tance ;  but  they  heap  up  treasures  of  his  righteous  wrath 
against  the  dreadful  day  when  he  must  vindicate  his  jus- 
tice and  honor  his  law  and  his  throne  ! — Of  this  great  day 
of  wrath,  Paul  has  more  to  say  below. 

The  reader  can  scarcely  need  to  be  told  that  the  scrip- 
tures of  both  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New  testifv  in 


23  ROMANS.  «  CHAP.  IT. 

clear,  ringing  tones  to  the  certainty,  the  fearfulness  and 
the  justice  of  that  day  of  doom  for  the  wicked.  (See  in 
the  Old  Testament  Ps".  62  :  13  ;  Prov.  24  :  12  ;  Eccl.  12  ; 
13, 14  ;  Jer.  32  :  19  ;  and  in  the  New,  Mat.  16  :  27  and  25  ; 
31-46  ;  2  Cor.  5  :  10— Gal.  6  :  7— Eph.  6  :  8— Col.  3:  24 
Eev.  2:  23  and  20:  12  and  22:  12).  Everywhere  deeds 
are  the  basis  upon  which  the  final  judgment  proceeds. 
The  law  holds  this  doctrine,  and  the  gospel  scheme  no  less. 

7.  To  them  who  bj  patient  continuance  in  well  do- 
ing seek  for  glory  and  honor  and  immortality,  eternal 
life : 

8.  But  nnto  them  that  are  contentious,  and  do  not 
obey  the  truth,  but  obey  unrighteousness,  indignation 
and  wrath. 

9.  Tribulation  and  anguish,  upon  every  soul  of  man 
that  doeth  evil ;  of  the  Jew  first,  and  also  of  the  Gentile  ; 

10.  But  glory,  honor,  and  peace,  to  every  man  that 
worketh  good  ;  to  the  Jew  first,  and  also  to  the  Gentile : 

11.  For  there  is  no  respect  of  persons  with  God. 

These  verses  simply  expand  and  apply  the  doctrine 
briefly  put  in  v.  6.  To  those  on  the  one  hand  who  perse- 
vere patiently  in  well-doing,  and  thus,  as  God  and  his 
truth  lead  them  on,  seek  for  glory,  honor  and  immortality, 
God  will  award  immortal  life.  But  to  those  on  the  other 
hand  who  are — not  precisely  "contentious  "  but  who  are 
intriguers,  religious  schemers,  who  suborn  their  religion  to 
base  personal  ends  of  vain  glory  ;  who  obey  not  the  truth 
[in  the  love  of  it]  but  obey  unrighteousness — to  such,  God 
will  award  his  indignation  and  his  wrath,  even  "  tribula- 
tion "  [inflicted  from  without  themselves]  and  "  an- 
guish "  [a  sense  of  utter  straitness  and  despair  of  help] 
upon  every  soul  of  man  who  worketh  out  evil.  The  word 
rendered  "  contentious,"  the  best  critics  derive  from  a  root 
which  signifies,  not  precisely  strife  in  general,  but  that 
very  specific  sense  which  I  have  indicated — partizansliip. 
scheming  for  pre-eminence.  In  choosing  this  word,  Paul 
put  his  finger  on  the  then  prevalent  type  of  Pharisaic  am- 
bition in  which  they  prostituted  the  most  sacred  things  to 
worldly  and  base  purposes.  The  word  is  used  characteris- 
tically'in  PhiL  1:  IG  and  2:  3. 

But  over  against  this,  yet  on  the  same  law  of  rendering 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  II.  27 

according  to  deeds,  God  will  award  glory,  honor  and  peace 
to  every  worker  of  good — to  all  well-doing  men  ;  first  and 
especially  to  the  Jew  as  being  foremost  in  religious  privi- 
leges, and  so  as  being  pre-eminently  the  illustrative  exam- 
ple of  God's  righteous  retribution  upon  both  good  and 
evil  ; — afterward  to  the  Gentile. 

It  should  be  noted  that  the  gospel  scheme  of  salvation 
by  faith  makes  no  exception  to  the  universal  law — judgment 
according  to  deeds  ;  for  that  gospel  must  carry  in  it  and 
with  it  repentance  from  sin  and  a  new  life  of  obedience  as 
the  fruit  of  its  faith  and  love  ;  or  it  is  proven  to  be  void, 
false,  and  of  no  effect. 

That  "  there  is  no  respect  of  persons  with  God  "  comes 
in  here  to  verify  the  fact  that  Jew  and  Gentile  fall  under 
the  same  universal  principle  of  justice  and  retribution — 
i.e.  according  to  their  personal  deeds  and  deserts. 

12.  For  as  many  as  have  sinned  withont  law  shall 
also  perish  without  law  ;  and  as  many  as  have  sinned  in 
the  law  shall  be  judged  by  the  law ; 

13.  (For  not  the  hearers  of  the  law  are  just  before 
God,  but  the  doers  of  the  law  shall  be  justified. 

14.  For  when  the  Gentiles,  which  have  not  the  law, 
do  by  nature  the  things  contained  in  the  law,  these,  hav 
ing  not  the  law,  are  a  law  unto  themselves  : 

15.  Which  shew  the  work  of  the  law  written  in  their 
hearts,  their  conscience  also  bearing  witness,  and  their 
thoughts  the  mean  while  accusing  or  else  excusing  one 
another ;) 

16.  In  the  day  when  God  shall  judge  the  secrets  of 
men  by  Jesus  Christ  according  to  my  gospel. 

In  these  verses  Paul  treats  the  exceedingly  vital  case  of 
those  who  (unlike  the  Jews)  have  no  written,  revealed  law 
— no  other  law  save  what  God  has  implanted  in  their  in- 
telligent and  moral  nature.  Of  these  Paul  says — (a)  That 
as  many  as  sin  without  written  law  shall  be  judged,  not  by 
it,  but  without  it ;  i.e.  on  the  basis,  not  of  what  they  knew 
not  and  could  not  know,  but  of  what  they  did  know  or 
might  have  knoAvn  ; — (b)  While  on  the  other  hand,  as 
many  as  have  sinned  in  the  law  in  possession  of  it  and  in 
circumstances  under  which  they  knew  or  might  have  known 
it,  shall  be  judged  by  this  law. 


28  ROMAN  S.~OHAP.  II. 

Here  tlie  Jew  sliould  be  reminded  that  to  be  merely  a 
hearer  of  the  public  reading  of  the  law  could  not  make  him 
righteous  before  God  ;  for  only  the  doers  of  the  law  are 
justified. — In  v.  14  the  case  of  the  Gentile  is  resumed. 
"For  when  Gentiles,  (any  Gentile),  having  not  the  written 
law,  do  what  tlie  law  requires  under  the  dictates  of  their 
reason  and  conscience  [the  mere  law  of  nature],  these  are 
ii  law  unto  themselves  inasmuch  as  they  show  the  work  of 
the  law  [its  identical  requirements  and  just  principles] 
written  in  their  very  hearts — their  conscience  bearing  joint 
testimony  and  their  reasonings  among  themselves  accusing 
or  excusing.  For  in  tlieir  abstract  discussions  of  moral 
questions,  and  also  in  their  approval  or  disapproval  of  the 
moral  actions  of  others,  they  give  free  scope  to  their  moral 
judgments  as  to  tilings  riglit  or  wrong,  and  thus  show  most 
decisively  that  they  Icnow  both  what  other  men  ought  to 
do,  and  also  what  they  themselves  should  do. — This  is 
Paul's  doctrine  in  regard  to  tlie  moral  responsibility  of  the 
heathen,  apart  from  the  revealed  law  of  God.  Beyond  all 
question  he  holds  that  their  intelligence,  conscience,  moral 
sense,  give  them  in  the  main  just  conceptions  of  duty  both 
toward  God  and  toward  men.  On  this  basis  and  on  no 
other  (specially  not  upon  the  basis  of  the  written  law  which 
they  had  not)  will  they  be  judged  in  the  final  day. 

Noticeably  Paul  holds  that  in  that  great  day,  God  Avill 
judge  '"'the  secrets" — the  very  hearts  as  well  as  the  out- 
ward lives,  of  all  men  whether  Jews  or  Gentiles.  This  is 
the  doctrine  which  he  is  commissioned  to  preach.  It  is 
through  the  immediate  agency  and  by  the  person  of  Jesus 
Christ,  that  God  will  hold  this  great  judgment  and  award 
its  final  and  august  decisions.  With  this  momentous  fact 
Paul  closed  his  great  speech  on  Mars  Hill  (Acts  17:  2'Z-ol)  ; 
"God  now  commandeth  all  men  everywhere  to  repent  be- 
cause he  hath  appointed  a  day  in  wliich  he  will  judge  the 
world  in  righteousness  hij  that  man  whom  he  liath  ordained 
[to  this  service],  of  which  lie  has  given  assurance  unto  all 
men  [a  public  and  perfect  guaranty  or  pledge]  in  raising 
him  from  the  dead.'' — This  great  judgment  could  by  no 
means  embrace  all  nations  if  it  were  to  be  limited  to  those 
who  have  the  written  law.  But  being  restricted  by  no 
limitation — made  broad  as  human  nature  itself,  extending 
to  all  intelligent  and  morally  reasoning  men,  it  can  apply 
readily  and  most  equitably  to  all  the  nations,  Jew  or  Gentile. 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  II.  29 

On  this  great  subject — the  moral  responsibilities  of  the 
heathen  before  God,  we  cannot  reasonably  fail  to  recognize 
Paul's  inspiration.  But  apart  from  this  divine  endorse- 
ment of  his  doctrine,  it  may  properly  be  borne  in  mind 
that,  being  called  of  God  especially  to  be  the  apostle  to  the 
heathen,  he  must  have  made  this  whole  subject  a  very 
special  study.  Probably  no  man  ever  studied  it  more  dili- 
gently or  more  profoundly,  or  with  better  opportunities 
for  mastering  its  principles  and  tracing  its  developments. 

17.  IBehiold,  tlioii  art  called  a  Jew,  and  restcst  in  tlio 
law,  and  makest  tliy  boast  of  God. 

18.  And  knowest  his  will,  and  approvest  the  things 
that  are  more  excellent,  being  instructed  out  of  the  law  ; 

19.  And  art  confident  that  then  thyself  art  a  guide 
of  the  blind,  a  light  of  them  w^liich  are  in  darkness ; 

20.  An  instructor  of  the  foolisli,  a  teacher  of  babes, 
which  hast  the  form  of  knowledge  and  of  the  truth  in 
the  law. 

The  better  textual  authorities  begin  v.  17  not  with 
'•'  Behold  "  [ide]  but  with  [ei  de]  "  But  if  " — i.e.  suppose 
thou  art  called  a  Jew  etc. — the  aftcrpart  of  this  suspended 
sentence  beginning  with  v.  21  ;  '•  Then,  being  a  teacher 
of  others,  dost  thou  not  teacli  thyself  ?  "  If  thou  bearest 
the  honored  name  of  Jew  and  dost  rest  complacently  in 
the  law  as  thy  great  national  distinction  and  glory,  and 
makest  thy  boast  in  God  as  the  God  of  the  nation  etc.,  and 
(v.  19)  hast  a  very  self-complacent  coniidence  that  thou 
art  a  guide  of  the  blind  [heathen] — thus  having  i\\eform 
of  knowledge  and  of  the  truth  which  is  in  and  through  the 
law.  Perhaps  Paul  would  have  laid  some  emphasis  upon 
''form,"  to  signify  that  it  might  in  their  case  be  form 
rather  than  substance — the  words  more  than  the  spirit  of 
this  knowledge.  It  is  manifest  that  he  meant  to  put  in 
bold  relief,  their  self-conceit  of  superior  wisdom  and  their 
pride  in  the  national  distinction  of  being  able  to  teach  the 
heathen  nations  far  more  of  the  true  God  and  of  pure 
morality  than  it  hud  been  given  them  to  know. 

In  this  stage  of  his  argument  Avith  the  Jew  Paul  would 
not  deny  this  superiority  of  knowledge,  but  he  would  very 
pointedly  suggest  that  this  knowledge  carried  with  itself 
grave  responsibilities,  particularly  in  the  points  of  living 


so  ROMANS.— CHAP.  II. 

worthily  of  their  better  light ;  of  disabusing  their  minds 
of  their  vanity  ;  of  taking  home  to  their  souls  a  sense  of 
the  amazing  guilt  of  knowing  yet  not  doing  their  duty,  and 
of  teaching  the  heathen  what  sin  is,  yet  themselves  practic- 
ing the  very  sins  they  know  so  well  how  to  condemn. 

21.  Thou  therefore  which  teacliest  another,  teachest 
tliou  not  thyself  ?  thou  that  preacliest  a  man  should  not 
steal,  dost  thou  steal  ? 

22.  Thou  that  sajest  a  man  should  not  commit  adul- 
tery dost  thou  commit  adultery?  thou  that  abhorrest 
idols,  dost  thou  commit  sacrilege  ? 

23.  Thou  that  makest  thy  boast  of  the  laAV,  through 
breakinc;  the  lavs^  dishonorest  thou  God  ? 

24:.  I'or  the  name  of  God  is  blasphemed  among  the 
Gentiles  through  you,  as  it  is  written. 

The  Greek  word  for  "therefore"  [oun]  gathers  up  all 
the  points  previously  put  in  the  first  part  of  this  long  sen- 
tence— thus  ;  since  these  things  are  so,  dost  thou,  teaching 
another,  not  teach  thyself  ?     Preaching  not  to  steal,  dost 
thou  steal  ?     Saying,  not  commit  adultery,  dost  thou  do  it 
thyself  ?     Abhorring  idols,  dost  thou  rob  the  God  of  the 
temple— z.e.  of  the  honor  and  homage  due  his  holy  name  ? 
— Apparently  it  is  in  this  sense  that  Paul's  question  implies 
the  horrible  guilt  of  the  Jew  in  robbing  God  of  his  due 
honor  while  at  the  same  moment  he  was  denouncing  hea- 
then idolatry. — V.  23  might  equally  well  be  read  affirma- 
tively inasmuch  as  the  construction  obviously  changes  and 
V.  2-i  is  affirmative,  based  on  the  assum^ition  that  v.  23  is 
also.     Thou  who  makest  thy  boast  in  tiie  law,  (proud  of 
having  it  in  possession),  yet  by  transgressing  that  very  law, 
thou  dost  dishonor  the  [true]  God.     '•  For  the  name  of 
the  [true]  God  is  blasphemed  among  the  Gentiles  on  your 
account,  as  it  is  written"  [Isa  52  :  5]. — The  Greek  student 
would  notice   that   Paul  does   not  say  precisely — "  blas- 
phemed by  you  " — personally  ashy  your  own  lips, — but  on 
your  account.'^     It  was  their  ungodly  life,  coupled  with 
their  pre-eminent  knowledge  of  God,  their  high  professions, 
and  their  glorious  opportunities,  that  brought  such  reproach 
on  the  name  of  God  before  the  heathen. 

*  The  preposition  (dia)  being  followed  not  by  the  genitive,  but 
by  the  accusative. 


■ROMANS.— CHAP.  II.  3I 

Tiie  words — '•  as  it  is  written  " — i.e.  in  your  scriptures, 
which  Paul  refers  to  but  does  not  stop  to  quote,  are  sup- 
posably  those  of  Isaiah — "  my  name  continually  every  day 
is  blasphemed  "  (Isa  52  :  5). 

25.  For  circumcision  verilj  profitetli,  if  thou  keej)  the 
law :  but  if  thou  be  a  breaker  of  tlie  law,  thy  circumcis- 
ion is  made  uncircumcision. 

26.  Therefore,  if  the  uncircumcision  keep  tlie  right- 
eousness of  the  law,  shall  not  his  uncircumcison  be  counted 
for  circumcision  ? 

27.  And  shall  not  uncircumcision  wliicb  is  by  nature, 
if  it  fulfill  the  law,  judge  thee,  who  by  the  letter  and 
circumcision  dost  transgress  the  law? 

28.  For  he  is  not  a  Jew,  which  is  one  outwardly  ; 
neither  is  that  circumcision,  which  is  outward  in  the 
flesh : 

29.  But  he  is  a  Jew,  which  is  one  inwardly ;  and  cir- 
cumcision is  that  of  the  heart,  in  the  spirit,  and  uot  in 
the  letter,  whose  praise  is  not  of  men,  but  of  God. 

ISToticably  Paul  knows  the  thouglit  and  heart  of  the 
Pharisee  so  well  that  he  anticipates  what  he  will  say,  and 
strikes  at  once  to  tlie  answer.  Thou,  my  Pharisaic  reader, 
wilt  say  to  me  ; — Please  remember,  0  Paul,  that  we  have 
the  glorious  national  distinction  of  circumcision.  'We  are 
thus  made  the  recognized  children  of  Abraham  and  heirs 
of  his  covenant  with  God.  Aye  indeed,  Paul  replies  ;  ''  /or 
circumcision  is  really  profitable  if  thou  fulfil  the  law  ;  but 
if  thou  art  a  transgressor  of  the  law,  then  thy  circumcision 
becomes  uncircumcison.  It  throws  you  at  once  out  of  the 
pale  of  the  covenant  into  the  status  of  all  uncircumcised 
men.  Moreover,  if  the  uncircumcised  man  keeps  the  right- 
eous precepts  of  the  law,  shall  not  his  uncircumcision  be 
accounted  to  him  for  circumcision  ?  [Certainly  so  ;  for 
God  cares  for  the  righteousness  and  not  at  all  for  the  merely 
external  rite.]  And  the  man  who  in  his  natural  state  is 
uncircumcised,  yet  keeps  the  law,  sliall  judge  thee  a  trans- 
gressor of  the  law  though  having  the  letter  of  the  law  and 
circumcision  besides ;  and  moreover  despite  of  all  that  the 
letter  and  this  outward  rite  can  do  for  you.  For  [v.  28] 
not  he  of  the  outward  is  a  real  Jew,  nor  is  that  of  the  out- 
ward— (in  the  flesh  only),  circumcision  ;  but  he  of  the  in- 


32  ROMANS.— CHAP.  II. 

ward  is  the  Jew,  and  [genuine]  circumcision  is  of  the  heart 
— in  spirit,  not  in  letter, — -whose  praise  is  not  of  men,  but 
of  God.  [Men  may  not  praise  this  purity  and  grace,  un- 
seen of  them  ;  but  God  does.] 

This  somewhat  close  translation  of  Paul's  words  may 
suffice  for  comment  on  this  very  clear  and  forcible  passage. 


CHAPTER    III. 

The  advantage  of  the  Jew  lay  in  having  the  written 
word  (v.  1,  2)  :  "God's  word  of  promise  not  vitiated  by 
man's  unbelief  (v.  3,  4)  ;  discussion  of  the  assumed  notion 
that  man's  sin  enures  to  the  glory  of  God  (v.  5,  8)  ;  Jew 
and  Gentile  all  alike  under  sin,  shown  from  Scripture 
(v.  9-18)  ;  this  proof  from  the  law  bears  specially  upon 
those  under  the  law,  so  that  all  the  world  stands  guilty 
before  God  (v.  19)  :  The  law  powerless  for  justification  ; 
useful  only  to  reveal  men's  sin  (v.  20) ;  but  God's  system 
for  making  men  righteous,  working  apart  from  law,  is  now 
made  known,  working  by  and  through  faith  (v.  21,  22)  ; 
which  finds  all  men  in  sin  and  justifies  them  gratuitously 
by  grace  through  Christ's  redemption  (v.  23,  24) — Christ 
having  been  set  forth  as  a  propitiatory  offering  to  show  how 
God  was  righteous  in  remitting  long  past  sins — a  way  in 
which  he  is  just  to  himself  while  yet  he  justifies  believers 
in  Christ  (v.  25,  2G).  Hence  faith  shuts  ofl:  boasting  and 
justification  avails  without  the  aid  of  deeds  of  law  (v.  27, 
28) — all  which  is  good  for  Gentiles  as  for  Jews  (v.  29,  30)  : 
faith  does  not  make  void  law  but  establishes  it  (v,  31.) 

1.  What  advantage  then  hath  the  Jew?  or  wliat 
profit  is  there  of  circumcison  ? 

2.  Much  every  way :  chiefly,  because  that  unto  them 
were  committed  the  oracles  of  God. 

As  Micah,  the  idolater,  said — "  They  have  taken  away 
my  gods,  and  what  have  I  more?"  So  the  Pharisee  is 
supposed  to  cry — They  have  taken  away  my  circum- 
cision, and  what  have  I  more  ?     What  is  left  the  Jew  ? 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  Ill,  33 

And  what  is  his  circumcision  good  for  when  the  outward  is 
gone  ? 

Paul  answers  :  Much  every  way  ;  but  chiefly  that  God 
has  given  them  in  trust  his  written  oracles — the  sacred 
scriptures — a  priceless  treasure,  would  they  but  appreciate 
and  appropriately  use  them. 

3.  For  wliat  if  some  did  not  believe  ?  shall  their  un- 
belief make  the  f aitli  of  God  without  eif ect  ? 

4.  God  forbid :  yea,  let  God  be  true,  but  every  man 
a  liar:  as  it  is  written,  Tliat  thou  mightest  be  justified 
in  thy  sayings,  and  mightest  overcome  when  thou  art 
judged. 

Nor  have  the  possible  benefits  of  this  great  trust  been 
vitiated  and  lost  by  reason  of  the  extensive  unbelief  of  the 
nation  :  For  shall  their  unbelief  make  void  the  good  faith 
of  God  ?  Will  God  cease  to  be  true  because  Jews,  never 
so  many,  become  false  and  faithless  ?  Never  !  Let  this 
never  be  said  or  thought !  Eather  let  God  be  true  and  be 
honored  as  true,  though  every  man  prove  a  liar — as  David 
said  (Ps.  51  :  4)  "  That  thou  mightest  be  justified  in  thy 
words,  and  mightest  come  ofi  conqueror  whenever  called  in 
question  and  to  trial." 

5.  But  if  our  unrighteousness  commend  the  right- 
eousness of  God,  what  shall  we  say  ?  Is  God  unrighteous 
who  taketh  vengeance?     (I  speak  as  a  man). 

6.  God  forbid:  for  then  how  shall  God  judge  the 
world  ? 

Yet  another  point  :  Suppose  that  our  unrighteousness 
serves  to  prove  the  more  strongly  and  to  set  forth  the  more 
conspicuously  the  righteousness  of  God  :  what  shall  we  say? 
Would  God  in  that  case  be  unrighteous  were  He  to  take 
vengeance — i.  e.  in  punishing  that  sin  which  had  served  to 
set  forth  his  righteousness  ? — Here  Paul  remarks  in  an 
under  tone  ("  I  speak  as  a  man  ")  : — but  what  is  his  pre- 
cise meaning  in  these  words  ?  Supposably  this : — I  say  this 
from  the  human  stand-point  of  view,  putting  it  upon  the 
basis  of  human  principles  of  judging  as  between  man  and 
man.  Even  to  our  human  eyes  this  must  appear  entirely 
obvious.  Therefore  let  this  never  be  said  !  For  if  it  were 
so,  how  could  God  judge  the  world  ?     For  nothing  can  be 


34  ROMANS.— CHAP.  III. 

mere  obvious  than  this — that  in  jadging  the  world  of  man- 
kind, God  must  needs  deal  with  an  infinite  amount  of 
human  sin  which  has  been  overruled  by  himself  for  his 
own  glory,  and  which  has  resulted  in  making  more  con- 
spicuous his  infinite  patience  and  boundless  love,  not  to 
say  also  his  glorious  justice.  Perhaps  we  might  even  say 
that  never  a  sin  is  perpetrated  which  God  does  not  overrule 
to  the  manifestation  of  his  own  higher  glory. — Plainly  He 
could  never  judge  the  Avorld  at  all  if  the  fact  that  sin  en- 
ures to  his  own  glory  precluded  him  from  punishing  it. 

7.  For  if  the  truth  of  God  liatli  more  abounded 
tliroiigli  my  lie  unto  his  gloiy  ;  why  yet  am  I  also  judged 
as  a  sinner  'I 

8.  And  not  rather,  (as  we  be  slanderously  reported, 
and  as  some  affirm  that  we  say,)  Let  us  do  evil,  that  good 
may  come  ?  whose  damnation  is  just. 

In  V.  7  he  puts  the  same  point  in  the  yet  more  definite  and 
specific  form  of  man's  falsehood  as  against  God's  truth.  If 
God's  truth  is  made  to  abound  [in  manifestation]  to  his 
own  glory  by  my  lie,  why  am  I  to  be  judged  as  a  sinner 
notwithstanding  ?  Why  should  we  not  rather  say  ; — "  Let 
us  do  the  evil,""?',  e.  of  this  lying,  "that  the  good"  [of 
God's  greater  glory] '"may  thereby  come?"  Bo  we  are 
slanderously  reported  as  saying ; — but  the  damnation  of 
such  slanderers  and  of  men  advocating  such  doctrine,  is 
forever  just ! — Tliat  is  all  I  need  to  say  of  it. 

Throughout  this  passage,  the  discussion  seems  to  be 
with  the  Jew. 

9  "What  then  ?  are  we  better  than  they  ?  No,  in  no 
wise :  for  we  have  before  proved  both  Jews  and  Gen- 
tiles, that  they  are  all  under  sin  ; 

10.  As  it  is  written,  There  is  none  righteous,  no, 
not  one : 

11.  There  is  none  that  understandeth,  there  is  none 
that  seeketh  after  God. 

12.  They  are  all  gone  out  of  the  way,  they  are 
together  become  unprolitaljle  ;  there  is  none  that  doeth 
good,  no,  not  one. 

13.  Their  throat  is  an  open  sepulchre;  with  their 


ROMANS.— CHAP,  III.  35 

tongues  tliey  liavc  used  deceit ;  the  poison  of  asps  is 
under  tlieir  lips : 

14.  Wliose  moutli  is  full  of  cursing  and  bitterness  : 

15.  Their  feet  are  swift  to  shed  blood : 

16.  Destruction  and  misery  a7'e  in  their  ways  : 

17.  And  the  way  of  peace  have  they  not  kno"s\Ti : 

18.  There  is  no  fear  of  God  before  their  eyes. 

This  is  the  old  question  :  Are  wg  Jews  better  than  they 
Gentiles — a  question  which  tlie  well  known  couceit  of  the 
Pharisaic  Jew  kept  constantly  before  Paul's  mind.  He 
answers  it  again  : — No,  in  no  wise  ;  for  we  have  shown 
already  that  all  are  under  sin  : — have  shown  it  of  the  Gen- 
tiles, chap.  1  :  18-32  ;  and  of  the  Jews,  tliroughout  chap. 
2. — But  to  make  this  most  vital  point  doubly  strong,  he 
returns  to  it. — The  case  of  the  Gentiles  needed  no  further 
showing  before  Pharisaic  Jews.  The  case  of  the  Jew  calls 
for  more  showing.  He  puts  this  best  by  appeal  to  their 
own  scriptures — no  higher  authority  witli  them  being  pos- 
sible. The  quotation  is  from  Ps.  14  and  5o — filling  here 
V.  10-18.  The  description  is  very  strong.  The  spirit  of 
their  sinning  as  here  set  forth  is  awfully  venomous,  as  if  the 
]ioison  of  asps  were  under  their  lips  ;  outbreaking  even  to 
murder  [  "  feet  swift  to  shed  blood  "J  ;  over-riding  and  per- 
verting all  their  good  sense  [ "  none  that  understandeth  "  ]  ; 
'•'  the  way  of  peace  they  have  not  known  ;  "  excluding  all 
''fear  of  God  :"  and  withal  so  absolutely  universal  that 
''  there  is  none  righteous  ;  no,  not  one."  Therefore  if  the 
testimony  of  God  himself  be  admitted,  the  Jews  are  all 
brought  under  sin,  and  consequently  under  condemnation. 

19.  l!s'ow  we  know  that  what  things  soerer  the  law 
saith,  it  saith  to  them  who  arc  under  the  law  ;  that  every 
mouth  may  be  stopped,  and  all  the  world  may  become 
guilty  before  God. 

At  this  critical  stage  of  his  discussion,  Paul  feels  the 
necessity  of  moving  Avith  the  utmost  logical  strength, 
making  every  cardinal  point  unmistakably  clear,  as  here; — 
"What  things  the  law  saith  (as  in  the  passage  Just  quoted 
from  David),  we  know  it  must  say  to  those  who  are  under 
the  law — i.  e.  to  Jews  who  have  this  law,  and  not  to  the 
unenlightened  heathen  who  have  it  not — a  point  which 
the  most  self-justifying   Pharisee  could  not  deny.     This 


36  ROMANS.— CHAP.  III. 

fearful  arraignment  of  guilt,  lying,  therefore,  against  the 
whole  body  of  the  Jews,  and  the  Gentiles  being,  of  course 
utterly  condemned  according  to  the  theology  of  the  Phari- 
see, it  comes  to  pass  that  every  mouth  is  stopped  and  the 
whole  world  becomes  guilty  before  God. 

20.  Therefore  by  the  deeds  of  tlie  law  there  shall  no 
flesh  be  justified  in  his  sight :  for  by  the  law  is  the  knowl- 
edge of  sin. 

The  delicate  point  in  this  verse  is  the  precise  sense  of 
its  first  word  '•  Therefore  "  [Greek  dioti]  which  some  read 
•'  therefore,''  making  the  impossibility  of  justification  upon 
the  basis  of  mere  law  an  inference  from  what  precedes  in 
V.  19  :  while  others  read  it  ''  Because,"  introducing  a  new 
but  collateral  fact,  viz.  that  no  man  can  be  justified  by 
mere  law,  because  the  use  and  purpose  of  the  law  are  to 
make  sin  more  manifest — to  give  men  a  clearer,  better 
knowledge  of  it, — The  former  construction  (that  of  the 
authorized  version)  is  to  be  preferred,  it  being  an  undenia- 
ble inference  from  Avhat  precedes  that  no  living  man  can 
be  justified  on  the  ground  of  perfect  obedience  to  law,  for 
he  never  obeys  tliat  law  perfectly. — The  law  has  another 
use  than  that  of  becoming  the  ground  of  justification,  viz. 
to  give  a  more  just  view  of  sin,  a  hcttcr  Jcnowlcclge  as  Paul's 
word  implies. 

All  this,  the  reader  will  notice,  is  preparing  the  way 
for  the  grand  idea  which  Paul  is  about  to  introduce  ;  viz. 
God's  new  and  perfect  scheme  for  justifying  sinners,  even 
through  the  gospel,  by  faith  in  an  atoning  Redeemer. 

21.  But  now  the  righteousness  of  God  without  the 
law  is  manifested,  being  witnessed  by  the  law  and  the 
prophets ; 

22.  Even  the  righteousness  of  God  which  is  by  faith 
of  Jesus  Christ  unto  all  and  upon  all  them  that  believe  ; 
for  there  is  no  difference  : 

23.  For  all  have  sinned,  and  come  short  of  the  glory 
of  God : 

'•'  But  now  " — "  now  "  referring  to  the  new  light  of  the 
gospel  scheme,  set  over  against  the  dimness  of  the  fore- 
going dispensation. — Apart  from  law  (better  than  "  Avith- 
out  law  "),  i.  c.  on  a  scheme  which  does  not  lean  upon  law 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  III.  37 

at  all — God's  plan  of  justifying  men  is  made  manifest — • 
not  indeed  entirely  new  to  mankind,  for  some  testimony 
to  it  had  been  borne  previously  by  the  law  and  the 
prophets — the  Old  Testament  Scriptui-es. 

Even  (v.  21)  God's  mode  of  justification  "  by  faith  of 
Jesus  Christ"  (/.  e.  by  faith  in  Christ)  availing  unto  all 
believing  ones,  for  there  is  no  difference  ?".  e.  between  Jew 
and  Gentile,  all  being  equally  under  sin  and  equally  pre- 
cluded from  salvation  in  any  other  possible  way — all  hav- 
ing sinned  and  having  failed  of  the  glorious  approval  of 
God — that  glory  which  accrues  from  his  final  approbation 
and  reward. 

2-i.  Being  justified  freely  by  liis  grace  through  the 
rederaj^tioii  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus : 

25.  AVhom  God  hath  set  forth  to  he  a  propitiation 
tlirough  faith  in  his  blood,  to  declare  his  righteousness 
for  the  remission  of  sins  that  are  past,  through  the  for- 
bearance of  God : 

26.  To  declare,  7  say,  at  this  time  his  righteousness : 
that  he  might  be  just,  and  the  justiiier  of  him  M^liich  be- 
lievetli  in  Jesus. 

These  verses  expand  more  fully  God's  wonderful 
scheme  of  justifying  sinners  by  faith.  '•  Being  justified 
gratuitously  " — as  a  free  gift,  not  based  at  all  upon  their 
perfect  obedience.  '•'  By  his  grace  " — his  real  mercy,  com- 
ing through  that  redemption  which  is  provided  for  in 
Christ  Jesus. — "  Whom  God  has  set  forth,  a  propitiation  " — ■ 
i.e.  a  propitiatory  offering  of  a  sacrificial  nature,  designed 
to  make  such  atonement  for  sin  as  will  render  gratuitous 
pardon  possible  to  God's  mercy — made  available  to  the  sin- 
ner through  faith  in  Christ's  name.  Then  amplifying  yet 
more  the  divine  purpose  in  this  propitiation,  Paul  adds — 
"For  the  purpose  of  showing  his  [God's]  righteousness  in 
the  case  of  his  remitting  sins  long  past — the  sins  of  the 
ages  before  Christ  came  which  in  God's  great  forbearance 
had  been  passed  over  ; — for  the  purpose  of  setting  forth  in 
this  present  time  how  he  could  be  righteous  in  sach  remis- 
sion ; — i.e.  to  show  himself  to  be  just  and  yet  the  justifier  of 
him  who  has  faith  in  Jesus.  The  two  related  things  to  be 
shown,  viz.,  that  God  is  just  to  himself,  just  toward  his 
law,  his  throne  and  all  its  interests,  on  the  one  hand  ;  and 


38  ROMANS.— CHAP.  III. 

on  the  other,  the  justifier  of  every  believing  one,  accepting 
him  as  pardoned  and  justified  on  the  ground  of  his  faith 
in  Christ — these  together  disclose  the  essence  and  explain 
the  deep  philosophy  of  this  divine  scheme  of  God  for  jus- 
tifying sinners. 

lleviewing  this  pregnant  passage  for  the  purpose  of 
bringing  out  if  possible  yet  more  distinctly  its  salient  and 
vital  points,  let  it  be  noted — 

1.  That  all  along  the  foregoing  ages  God  had  been  re- 
mitting the  sins  of  his  people. 

2.  But  he  had  not  shown  clearly  on  what  ground  he 
had  done  this,  nor  how  he  could  do  it  and  yet  be  just  to 
the  interests  of  his  moral  government,  just  to  his  veracity 
in  his  threatenings  against  sin  and  sinners,  and  just  to  his 
responsibilities  for  the  well  being  of  a  universe  of  moral 
agents. 

3.  Something  had  indeed  been  done  during  the  past 
ages  toward  illustrating  the  principles  on  which  this  re- 
mission of  sin  had  taken  place,  particularly  in  the  way  of 
setting  them  forth  under  symbols  and  types  which  might  at 
least  serve  to  define  a  class  of  terms  for  future  use,  and  so 
provide  for  a  more  clear  manifestation  of  the  vital  things, 
at  some  future  day. 

4.  Yet  it  still  remained  to  make  this  final  and  far  more 
lucid  showing  which  should  set  forth  hoio  God  could  be  just 
while  yet  he  justified  the  believer  in  Jesus.  The  reader 
cannot  fail  to  notice  the  great  emphasis  put  by  constant 
reiteration  upon  the  idea  of  setting  forth,  shoiving,  making 
manifest ;  nor  can  he  fail  te  see  that  the  thing  to  be  made 
manifest  was  precisely  what  he  puts  in  the  phrase,  ''The 
righteousness  of  God  by  faith,"  and  which  he  expands  yet 
more  as  the  showing  how  God  could  be  at  the  same  time 
just  and  yet  justify  the  penitent  sinner  who  believes  in  Jesus. 

This  ultimate  showing,  this  final  setting  forth,  for 
which  the  old  Mosaic  system  had  made  such  preparation 
and  had  so  well  illustrated  its  standai'd  terms  and  ideas, 
was  to  be  made  by  bringing  forth  Christ  as  being  himself 
the  redemption  and  the  propitiation,  available  through 
faith  in  his  blood,  which  should  make  manifest  that  God 
was  righteous  in  the  remitting  of  past  sins.  Jesus  came 
to  fulfil  the  significance,  long  almost  unknown,  of  those 
Old  Testament  terms — '^ redemption,"  "propitiation," 
"  remission  of  sins." 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  III.  39 

5.  Finally,  the  vital  point  (as  said  already)  was  to  vin- 
dicate God's  justice  in  the  pardon  of  sin,  i.e.  to  show  how 
he  conld  be  jnst  and  could  yet  account  as  just  and  also 
cause  to  be  really  just,  the  sinner  who  believes  in  Jesus. 

27.  "VVliere  is  boasting  tlien?  It  is  excluded.  By 
wliat  law  ?  of  works  ?     Nay  ;  but  by  the  law  of  f  aitli. 

28.  Therefore  we  conclude  that  a  man  is  justified  by 
faith  without  the  deeds  of  the  law. 

Is  there  anything  here  for  the  boasting  Pharisee  who 
"  thanks  God  that  he  is  not  as  other  men  are  ?  "  Not  a 
thing.  All  such  boasting  is  shut  off  utterly.  On  what 
principle  ?  Is  it  on  the  principle  of  the  law  of  works  ? 
By  no  means  ;  but  of  the  law  of  faith.  For,  faith  puts 
him  right  before  God  on  the  ground,  not  of  his  own  meri- 
torious works  but  on  the  ground  of  his  faith  in  Christ.  Ac- 
cording to  the  notion  of  the  proud  Pharisee  his  deeds  were 
a  valid  foundation  for  boasting;  but  no  man  could  think 
of  boasting  over  the  undeserved  mercy  that  comes  to  the 
sinner  from  Christ  through  faith  in  his  blood. 

The  approved  text  (tirst  clause  of  v.  2S),  reads — not 
"  therefore,  but  for."  AVe  come  logically  to  the  conclusion 
that  a  man  is  justified  apart  from  deeds  of  law,  meritori- 
ous works  having  no  part  in  the  transaction,  constituting 
no  part  of  the  ground  of  his  pardon. 

29.  Is  he  the  God  of  the  Jews  only  ?  is  he  not  also 
of  the  Gentiles  ?     Yes,  of  the  Gentiles  also  : 

30.  Seeing  it  is  one  God,  which  shall  justify  the  cir- 
cumcisiou  by  faith,  and  uncircumcision  through  faith. 

Or  is  he  the  God  of  the  Jews  only,  reserving  all  his 
favors  for  them  alone  ?  This  would  be  indeed  the  case  if 
works  of  law  were  the  necessary  condition  of  being  justi- 
fied, for  the  Gentiles  have  not  even  had  the  written  law  to 
use  for  this  purpose.  But  is  not  He  the  God  of  the  Gen- 
tiles also  ?  Yes,  certainly  ;  even  the  Old  Testament  is 
full  of  prophetic  declarations  that  God's  great  love  includes 
the  Gentile  world  (v.  30)  inasmuch  as  it  is  the  One  God 
(one  and  the  same)  who  will  justify  the  circumcised  Jew  on 
the  ground  of  his  faith,  and  the  uncircumcised  Gentile  by 
or  through  this  (the  same)  faith.  Here  the  reader  might 
ask  whv  we  have  in  the  first  case  "  bv  faith,"  and  in  the 


40  IIOMANS.— CHAP.  III. 

second,  '■' through  faith."  The  Greek  involves  the  fame 
problem;  Why  did  Paul  put  [ek]  before ''faith  "  in  the 
case  of  the  circumcised  Jew,  and  [dia]  before  it,  for  the 
uncircumcised  Gentile  ?  I  doubt  if  any  sensible  answer  can 
be  given  but  this  ;  Either  from  mere  accident,  or  for  the 
sake  of  variety.  For  the  whole  scope  of  the  argument 
here  forbids  us  to  admit  the  least  fundamental  difference 
between  Jew  and  Gentile  in  this  respect,  viz.  the  relation 
of  their  faith  respectively,  to  justification, — It  is  perhaps 
supposable  that  in  using  '•'  ek."  of  the  Jew,  Paul  followed 
the  passage  he  had  previously  quoted  (1  :  17)  from  Hab. 
2:6  :  —'''The  just  shall  live  of  [etc.]  his  faith."  Then, 
coming  to  the  case  of  the  Gentile,  he  used  the  nearly 
synonymous  [dia]  with  the  genitive,  introducing  here  the 
article — by  means  of  the  same  faith. 

31.  Do  we  tlien  make  void  tlie  law  tlirougli  faitli  ? 
God  forbid :  yea,  we  establisli  tlie  law. 

Do  we  then  make  void  law  through  this  faith  ; — literally 
(the  Greek  article)  through  the  faith,  i.  e.  of  the  gospel 
system  ?     By  no  means  ;  but  we  establish  law. 

Twice  in  this  connection  {viz.  v  21,  28)  Paul  has  said 
very  emphatically  that  this  justification  by  faith  takes  effect 
apart  from  law.* 

Hence,  well  aware  of  the  rising  thought  of  his  Phari- 
saic reader,  he  anticipates  his  objection,  viz.  That  must 
annul  (make  void)  all  law.  You  save  men  without  law  : 
What  is  that  but  abrogating  law  ;  making  law  amount  to 
nothing  at  all  ! — Nay,  replies  Paul ;  w'e  rather  establish 
law  on  firmer,  better  ground  than  ever. 

Here  two  main  questions  arise — (1.)  As  to  the  sense  of 
the  word  "  law  "  in  this  passage  ? — (2)  As  to  the  verifica- 
tion of  Paul's  words — the  manner  in  which  the  doctrine  of 
justification  by  faith  only  and  quite  apart  from  meritorious 
works,  sustains  law  and  makes  it  firm. 

The  sense  of  the  word  '•  law  "  in  this  passage  is  in  dis- 
pute among  very  worthy  critics  :  e.  g.  Stuart  and  Meyer 
argue  strenuously  that  "law"  here  means  the  Old  Testa- 
ment scriptures  and  insist  that  the  next  chapter  is  Paul's 
vindication  of  the  point  put  here,  showing  that  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures  teach  and  sustain  his  doctrine  of 
justification  by  faith. 

*  ;i;w^«i?  vojwv. 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  III.  41 

I  am  compelled  to  dissent  from  their  exegesis,  and 
maintain  that  "law"  here  is  used  in  the  same  sense  as 
above,  particularly  in  v.  21,  28 — i.  e.  the  moral  law  of  God 
as  a  rule  of  duty  : — and  on  these  grounds  : 

1.  Our  authorized  yersion  does  not  fairly  represent 
Paul's  word.  Paul  did  not  say  "'the  law,"  but  simple 
"law,"  without  the  article.  If  he  had  referred  to  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures,  he  should  have  said  "  the  laiv,''  this 
being  the  invariable  usage.*  Bat  inasmuch  as  he  actually 
said  only  "law,"  we  are  compelled  to  take  the  word  to 
mean,  God's  great  rule  of  moral  duty  ;  and  the  more  so 
because  the  foregoing  context  and  the  argument  Paul  is 
making  demand  it.  Certainly  Paul  has  been  speaking  of 
"law"  in  this  very  sense  (v.  20.)  "  By  deeds  of  law  shall 
no  flesh  be  justified  ; "  for  by  law  is  the  better  knowledge  of 
sin;"  and  (v.  21.) — "But  now,  without  law^'  (not  without 
"'  the  law),  the  righteousness  of  God  is  manifested,  being 
witnessed  by  the  law  and  the  prophets" — the  article  being 
here  because  in  this  case  it  means  the  Pentateuch — a  part 
of  the  Old  Testament. — Also  (v.  28),  "A  man  is  justified 
by  faith  without  deeds  of  law  " —  (not  "  of  the  law."  f 

2.  Some  of  the  critics  say  that  if  we  understand  Paul 
to  speak  of  moral  law  in  general,  he  does  not  answer  the 
objector  at  all. — To  this  it  should  suffice  to  reply — (a.) 
That  he  has  already  said  the  law  is  good  to  give  a  better 
knowledge  of  sin  (v.  20.) — which  assumes  the  law  to  be  in 
force — not  abrogated,  but  confirmed  ;  and  (b.)  That  he 
defers  the  further  answer  to  this  Pharisaic  objection  to  a 
later  point  in  his  discussion  (chap.  G-8). 

3.  The  objection  raised  here  by  the  Pharisee  is  certainly 
not  answered  in  chap.  4,  and  therefore  "law"  cannot  be 
used  here  in  the  sense  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  as 
brought  forward  in  that  chapter.  For,  the  scope  of  Rom. 
4  is  not  aimed  to  show  that  Paul's  justification  by  faith  es- 
tablished law  (in  the  sense  of  the  Old  Testament  Scrip- 
tures) but  that  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  establish  it ; 
— not  that  justification  does  not  make  void  the  Old  Testa- 

*  See  Matt.  5  :  17,  18  and  7:  12  and  11  :  13  and  13  :  5  and  so  on 
everywhere  if  the  meaning  be — "  the  law"  used  for  the  Old  Testa- 
ment Scriptures. 

f  Paul's  usage — omitting  the  article  before  "  law  "  when  he 
takes  the  word  in  its  general  sense  of  man's  rule  of  duty,  is  entirely 
uniform. 


42  KOMANS— CHAP.  III. 

inent  Scriptures,  but  that  those  scriptures  do  not  make 
void  but  really  prove  it.  That  is,  Paul  appeals  to  the  Old 
Testament  to  confirm  from  them  his  doctrine  of  justifica- 
tion by  faith,  and  not  at  all  to  refute  the  Pharisaic  objec- 
tion that  he  was  annulling  law  and  making  it  of  no 
account. 


-CJT/i- 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Pharisaic  Jew  gloried  in  having  Abraham  for  his 
father  (••'  We  have  Abraliam  to  our  father,"  Matt.  3,  9)  — 
and  assumed  himself  entitled  to  every  blessing  promised  to 
Abraham  inasmuch  as  circumcision  brought  him  within  the 
Abrahamic  covenant.  Furthermore,  it  is  clear  that  in  his 
view  Abraham  and  all  the  circumcised  held  their  blessings 
on  the  ground  of  works,  not  of  faith  ;  of  doings,  and  not 
of  simple  believing.  Panl  knew  perfectly  how  this  matter 
lay  in  their  mind,  and  therefore  devoted  this  chapter  to  meet 
and  refute  their  errors  on  this  point ;  aiming  comprehen- 
sively to  show  that  according  to  their  own  scriptures  Abra- 
ham's righteousness  (acceptance  before  God)  came  of  faith, 
not  of  works  :  that  David  taught  the  same  when  he  spoke 
of  the  blessedness  of  the  man  forgiven  of  sin  ;  that  Abra- 
ham attained  this  righteousness  of  faith  'before  he  was  cir- 
cumcised, and  therefore  his  righteousness  could  not  depend 
on  his  circumcision  ;  that  hence  he  became  the  father  of  all 
believing  Gentiles  who  like  himself  believed  before,  and 
without  the  aid  of,  circumcision.  As  to  the  circumcised 
Jew,  he  could  be  the  father  of  those  only  who  had  like  faith 
with  his.  This  faith  of  Abraham  he  sets  forth  in  its  con- 
stituent elements,  particularly  showing  that  it  turns,  not  at 
all  upon  works  of  merit,  but  wholly  upon  free  grace. 

1.  What  shall  we  say  then  that  Abraliam  our  father 
as  pertaining  to  the  flesh,  hath  found? 

2.  For  if  Abraham  wore  justified  by  works,  he  hath 
whereof  to  glory  ;  but  not  before  God. 

Breaking  in  Avith  apparent  abruptness  because  the  no- 
tions of  the  Pharisaic  Jews  were  too  well  known  both  to 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  IV.  43 

himself  and  to  his  readers  to  require  formal  statement,  he 
asks, — What  blessings  did  our  common  father  derive  from 
his  circumcision  in  the  flesh  ?  The  authorized  version  con- 
nects the  word  "flesh"  with  "father"  ;  but  it  is  better  to 
connect  it  with  the  verb  "found" — (1.)  Because  there  was 
not  the  least  occasion  to  say  — father  as  to  the  flesh  ;  and 
(2.)  the  gist  of  the  question  is — What  benefit  did  he  derive 
from  fleshly  circumcision — that  is,  from  circumcision  as  an 
external  rite,  in  the  flesh  ? — It  is  precisely  in  this  sense  of 
the  question  that  Paul  proceeds  to  say — For  if  this  circum- 
cision, considered  as  a  work — a  thing  of  personal  merit — 
availed  to  Abraham's  justification  before  God,  then  he  had 
something  to  glory  in — some  ground  of  j^ersonal  compla- 
cency and  even  of  boasting  :  but  the  very  idea  of  this  as 
toiuard  God  is  abhorrent  to  our  moral  sense.  Therefore 
Paul  makes  this  emphatic  declaration  :  How  much  so- 
ever of  merit  might  lie  in  Abraham's  prompt  obedience 
to  a  painful  rite,  we  can  never  think  of  its  being  the  meri- 
torious ground  of  his  salvation  Je/bre  God!  All  boasting 
in  it  is  excluded  in  the  presence  of  the  great  and  holy 
God! 

3.  'For  what  saith  the  Scripture  ?  Abraham  believed 
God,  and  it  was  counted  unto  him  for  righteousness. 

With  the  Pharasaic  Jew,  arguments  from  his  own  scrip- 
tures are  always  in  order  ;  therefore  Paul  appeals  to  that 
pivotal  passage,  the  bearing  of  which  on  the  point  in  hand 
was  at  once  entirely  plain  and  perfectly  decisive  ; — '^  Abra- 
ham believed  God,  and  it  (this  faith)  was  counted  unto  him 
for  righteousness  "  (Gen.  15  :  6).  It  availed  for  him  unto 
the  result  (so  the  Greek)  of  righteousness  ; — i.  e.  of  accep- 
tance before  God  as  a  righteous  man. 

4.  ISTow  to  him  that  worketh  is  the  reward  not  reck- 
oned of  grace,  but  of  debt. 

5.  But  to  him  that  worketh  not,  but  believeth  on  liim 
that  justifieth  the  ungodly,  his  faith  is  counted  for  rigli- 
teouness. 

The  man  who  works  has  his  reward,  not  as  a  gratuity 
but  as  a  debt.  The  man  Avho  does  not  work  but  only 
believes  upon  one  Avho  justifies  the  sinner  is  on  a  totally 
diSerent  footing.     Ilis  faitli   (not  his  work)  is  made  the 


4i  ROMANS.— CHAP.  IV. 

ground  of  his  acceptance  as  righteous.  These  points  are 
])ut  by  Paul  very  distinctly  and  in  this  antithetic  form  ; — 
To  the  working  man  his  reward  does  not  come  by  gratui- 
tous mercy,  but  by  right — as  a  debt  due  ; — but,  on  the 
other  hand,  to  him  who  worketh  not,  but  simply  rests  in 
faith  upon  Him  who  justifies  the  ungodly,  his  resting  faith 
counts  to  him  for  righteousness. 

G.  Even  as  David  also  describetli  the  blessedness  of 
tlie  man,  nnto  whom  God  imputetli  righteousness  with- 
out works, 

T.  Saying,  Blessed  are  they  whose  iniquities  are  for- 
given, and  wdiose  sins  are  covered. 

8.  Blessed  is  the  man  to  whom  the  Lord  will  not  im- 
pute sin. 

A  quotation  from  David  is  here  fully  in  point  (Ps.  32  : 1) 
which  expatiates  on  the  blessedness  of  the  man  who  is  con- 
sciously a  great  sinner  :  ^\\\o  cries  for  mercy,  here  as  also 
in  Ps.  51  ; — this  Psalm,  be  it  noted,  referring  to  that  same 
wonderful  scene  of  penitential  prayer  and  to  the  inex- 
pressible relief  and  blessedness  of  conscious  pardon.  David 
celebrates  in  song  the  blessedness  of  this  free  pardon  given 
to  conscious  sinners  who  feel  that  they  deserve  nothing — 
given  on  the  basis  of  God's  loving  kindness  and  great  mercy 
under  which  he  no  longer  imputes  to  them  their  sin,  but 
accounts  them  righteous  yet  not  at  all  on  the  ground  of 
meritorious  works. 

9.  Cometh  this  blessedness  then  uj)on  the  circumcis- 
ion onhj,  or  upon  the  uncircumcision  also  ?  for  we  say- 
that  faith  was  reckoned  to  Abraham  for  righteousness. 

10.  How  was  it  then  reckoned  ?  when  he  was  in  cir- 
cumcision, or  in  uncircumcision  ?  ISTot  in  circumcision, 
but  in  uncircumcision. 

Here  Paul  raises  another  thoroughly  vital  question  : — 
Is  this  blessedness  of  which  David  speaks  restricted  to  the 
circumcised  ;  or  may  it  come  to  the  uncircumcised  as 
^yell  p — "We  can  readily  settle  this  great  question  ;  for  you 
will  remember  we  have  seen  that  Abraham's  righteousness 
came  of  his  faith — turned  upon  his  faith  and  upon  this 
only.  Now  then,  we  have  only  to  ask — What  was  his  state 
as  to  circumcision  when  this  righteousness  was  reckoned 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  IV.  45 

to  his  account  ?     Was  he  then  a  circumcised  man,  or  a 
man  uncircumcised  ? 

History  settles  this  question  peremptorily  and  forever. 
He  was  not  at  that  time  a  circumcised  man,  but  a  man  un- 
circumcised. Therefore  his  righteousness  Avas  in  no  wise 
dependent  upon  circumcision. — [The  Bible  reader  will  find 
the  record  of  Abraham's  faith  accounted  to  him  for  righte- 
ness,  in  Gen.  15  :  G  ;  while  the  record  of  his  circumcision 
appears  many  years  later  in  Gen.  17  :  23-27.] 

11.  And  lie  received  tlie  sio;n  of  circumcision,  a  seal 
of  the  righteousness  of  the  faith  which  he  had  yet  being 
uncircumcised ;  that  he  might  be  the  father  of  all  them 
that  believe,  though  they  be  not  circumcised ;  that  righte- 
ousness might  be  imputed  unto  them  also  ; 

12.  And  the  father  of  circumcision  to  them  who  are 
not  of  the  circumcision  only,  but  who  also  walk  in  the 
steps  of  that  faith  of  our  father  Abraham,  which  he  had 
being  yet  uncircumcised. 

These  verses  are  Paul's  very  remarkable  comment  upon 
the  historic  fact  that  Abraliam's  saving  faith  came  before 
his  circumcision.  As  the  result  of  this  fact,  Abraham  be- 
came the  father  of  a  very  great  family — a  family  made  up 
of  two  distinct  classes  ;  viz.  (1.)  All  Gentiles  who  believe 
as  he  did  before,  and  independently  of,  circumcision ;  and 
(2.)  All  Jews  who  walk  in  the  steps  of  the  faith  which 
Abraham  had  before  his  circumcision.  The  Gentile  comes 
in  upon  the  same  ground  as  his  great  believing  father 
Abraham  :  tlie  Jew  comes  in  if  he  has  like  faith  with  Abra- 
ham's, but  by  no  means  (let  him  notice)  on  the  ground  of 
liis  circumcision.  As  to  the  Jew,  his  circumcision  does 
not  preclude  him  if  only  he  has  faith  like  Abraham's  ;  but 
this  faith  he  must  certainly  have,  or  he  is  no  son  of  Abra- 
ham. 

13.  For  the  promise,  that  he  should  be  the  heir  of 
tlie  world,  vms  not  to  Abraham,  or  to  his  seed,  througli 
the  law,  but  through  the  righteousness  of  faith. 

14.  For  if  they  which  are  of  the  law  he  heirs,  faith  is 
made  void,  and  the  promise  made  of  none  effect : 

15.  Because  the  law  worketh  wrath :  for  where  no  law 
is,  there  is  no  transgression. 

3 


46  ROMANS.— CHAP.  IV. 

For  not  on  the  ground  of  law  was  the  promise  to  Abra- 
ham and  to  his  seed  that  he  should  be  the  heir  of  the 
world  ;  but  on  the  ground  of  the  righteousness  of  faith. 

The  phrase — "  Heir  of  the  world" — assumes  that  the 
world  was  to  be  in  some  sense  his  inheritance.  In  him  and 
in  his  seed  were  the  nations  to  be  blessed,  and  their  bles- 
sedness should  be  a  royal,  princely  good  to  him. — Then 
V.  14.  resumes  Paul's  argument : — "  For  if  the  men  of  law" 
(as  opposed  to  men  of  faith) — men  who  relied  for  justifica- 
tion before  God  on  perfect  obedience  to  law — had  become 
heirs  of  the  world,  then  faith  would  be  virtually  null 
(empty  of  result  as  Paul's  word  suggests),  and  the  promise 
of  no  use. 

He  proceeds  : — That  the  law  should  be  powerless  toward 
such  a  result  is  simply  inevitable  ;  for  the  law  works  wrath; 
i.  e.  the  knowledge  of  law  increases  light,  and  so  increases 
the  guilt  of  those  who  sin  in  spite  of  light.  Apparently 
Paul  assumes  also  that  mere  law  never  moves  sinners  to 
repentance  and  new  obedience,  and  therefore,  left  to  its 
own  normal  influence,  it  only  avails  to  augment  human 
guilt. — Whei'e  there  is  no  law,  there  is  no  transgression,  for 
transgression  is  a  conscious  over-stepping,  over-riding,  and 
trampling  under  foot,  of  law. 

16.  Therefore  it  is  of  faith,  that  ii  might  he  by  gi*ace ; 
to  the  end  the  promise  might  be  sure  to  all  the  seed ;  not 
to  that  only  which  is  of  the  law,  but  to  that  also  which 
is  of  the  faith  of  Abraham ;  who  is  the  father  of  us  all, 

17.  (As  it  is  written,  I  have  made  thee  a  father  of 
many  nations,)  before  him  whom  he  believed,  even  God. 
who  quickeneth  the  dead,  and  calleth  those  things  which 
be  not  as  though  they  were : 

18.  Who  against  hope  believed  in  hope,  that  he 
might  become  the  father  of  many  nations,  according  to 
that  which  was  spoken,  So  shall  thy  seed  be. 

On  this  account  did  God  hinge  his  plan  for  human  sal- 
vation upon  faith  to  the  end  it  might  be  of  grace — i.e. 
might  afford  unlimited  scope  for  his  mercy  ;  so  that  his 
promise  might  be  firm  to  all  the  seed  of  Abraham  (as  above 
V.  11.  12.) — i.e.  to  the  Gentile  who  is  Abraham's  son  only 
in  the  matter  of  faith  ;  and  to  the  Jew  who  walks  in  the 
steps  of  his  lineal  father's  faith.     Put  in  the   phrase  of 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  IV.  47 

T.  16,  it  is  thus  : — Not  only  to  him  of  the  hiw  (the  Jew), 
but  to  him  of  Abraham's  faith  (the  Gentile  believer).  Now 
Paul  expatiates  upon  this  precious  fact  that  G-od  made 
Abraham  the  father  of  all  who  like  him  believe  ;  and  thus 
to  the  extent  of  many  nations,  Gentile  as  well  as  Jew. 

To  set  forth  the  strength  of  this  faith  of  Abraham  in 
full  light,  Paul  reminds  us  that  he  believed  in  God's  power 
to  vivify  what  was  dead,  and  to  speak  of  things  apparently 
impossible  as  though  they  were  certain  and  sure.  Thus  in 
the  strength  of  his  faith  Abraham  believed  against  all  hu- 
man probability — ("against  hope,  believed  in  hope,")  and 
so  reached  the  exalted  honor  of  becoming  the  father  of 
many  nations. 

19.  And  being  not  weak  in  faith,  he  considered  not 
liis  own  body  now  dead,  when  he  was  about  a  hundred 
years  old,  neither  yet  the  deadness  of  Sarah's  womb : 

20.  He  staggered  not  at  the  promise  of  God  through 
unbelief ;  but  was  strong  in  faith,  giving  glory  to  God. 

21.  And  being  fully  pursuaded  that  what  lie  had 
promised,  he  was  able  to  perform. 

22.  And  therefore  it  was  imputed  to  him  for  righte- 
ousness. 

These  verses  expatiate  upon  and  reaffirm  the  great  faith 
of  this  glorious  model  of  implicit  confidence  in  God. 

23.  Kow  it  was  not  written  for  his  sake  alone,  that 
it  was  imputed  to  him  : 

24.  -But  for  us  also,  to  whom  it  shall  be  imputed,  if 
we  believe  on  him  that  raised  up  Jesus  our  Lord  from 
the  dead ; 

25.  Who  was  delivered  for  our  offences,  and  was 
raised  again  for  our  justification. 

His  example  is  put  on  record,  not  for  his  sake  specially 
but  for  our  sake —  for  the  sake  of  all  ages  thenceforward, 
and  especially  for  the  sake  of  illustrating  the  place  which 
faith  holds  in  this  scheme  of  justification  before  God.  As 
his  faith  was  accounted  to  him  the  basis  and  ground  of  his 
justification,  so  is  it  to  us  all  if  we  believe  on  God  the 
Father  as  one  who  raised  Jesus  our  Lord  from  the  dead — 
the  same  who  was  delivered  up  to  death  for  our  sins,  but 
raised  again  for  our  justification — raised  from  the  dead  to 


48  ROMANS.— CHAP.  IV. 

become  the  Mediator  of  his  people  before  the  Father's 
throne  and  so  to  make  their  salvation  (they  believing  in 
him)  perfectly  and  eternally  sure. 


CHAPTER  V. 

This  chapter  is  in  two  distinct  paragraphs — v.  1-11, 
being  the  first ;  v.  12-21,  the  second.  The  first  sets  forth 
the  rich  blessings  that  come  to  believers  through  their  jus- 
tification by  faith  in  Christ ;  e.g.  free  access  to  God  ;  great 
joy  in  the  assured  hope  of  his  approval  and  final  glorious 
reward  ;  a  spirit  that  bears  us  up  in  joyous  exultation  over 
whatever  tribulation  ;  unfaltering  confidence  in  God,  in- 
spired by  conscious  love  toward  him  : — all  heightened  by 
our  inference  that  if  Christ,  dying  for  us  while  yet  sinners, 
ensured  for  us  reconciliatien  to  God,  much  more  will  his 
resurrection  power  avail'to  perfect  this  work  unto  our  final 
glory. 

The  second  paragraph  runs  a  parallel  by  analogy  be- 
tween the  two  great  representative  men  of  our  race — Adam 
and  Christ ;  Adam  on  his  side  representing  the  sin  of  the 
race  and  the  consequent  death  and  condemnation  : — Christ 
the  redemption  of  the  race,  the  marvellous  gift  of  grace 
and  the  consequent  exalted  blessedness  of  his  people. 
Throughout  this  passage  and  its  extended  analogy,  the 
apostle's  aim  is  to  show  that  grace  surpasses  sin  ;  that  God's 
mercy  is  greater  than  his  wrath  ;  that  the  fruits  of  Christ's 
work  for  the  race  greatly  exceed  the  results  of  sin  and  ruin 
that  accrue  from  Adam.  The  whole  aim  and  purpose  of 
this  analogy  enure  to  heighten  the  main  point  put  in  the 
first  paragraph,  viz.,  the  glorious  blessedness  which  comes 
through  faith  in  Christ  to  all  believers. 

1.  Therefore  being  justified,  by  faith,  Ave  have  peace 
with  God.  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ : 

2.  By  whom  also  we  have  access  by  faith  into  this 
grace  wherein  we  stand,  and  rejoice  in  hope  of  the  glorv 
of  God. 

It  should  be  specially  noted  here  that  this  peace  toward 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  V.  49 

God — peace  lefore  him,  in  his  conscious  presence — Paul's 
words  must  mean — involves  two  somewhat  distinct  facts  ; 
viz.,  (1)  The  absence  of  condemnation  on  God's  part,  and 
the  resulting  approval,  friendship,  love,  which  God  bears 
towards  his  forgiven,  restored  children  : — and  (2)  The 
conscious  sense  of  peace  toward  God  which  the  believer  ex- 
periences, coupled  also  with  a  sense  of  free  access  by  faith 
into  this  state  of  favor  before  God  in  which  the  justified 
stand.  It  is  a  precious  fact  in  the  experience  of  penitent, 
pardoned  souls  that  this  inner  consciousness  usually  follo^ys 
the  first  result  above  named — the  actual  restoration  of 
peace  between  the  Father  and  his  returning  and  forgiven 
child.  It  is  but  fitting  that  God  should  make  his  attitude 
of  peace  and  love  toward  his  pardoned  creatures  known  to 
their  consciousness.  He  has  ample  agencies  in  and  through 
the  Holy  Ghost  for  doing  it. 

3.  And  not  only  so,  but  we  glory  in  tribulations 
also  ;  knowing  that  tribulation  worketli  patience  ; 

4.  And  patience,  experience  ;  and  experience,  hope  : 

5.  And  hope  maketh  not  ashamed ;  because  the  love 
of  God  is  slied  abroad  in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
which  is  given  unto  ns. 

This  exultant  joy  in  the  hope  of  God's  great  reward  is 
not  the  only  fruit  of  our  justification  by  faith.  Quite  be- 
yond this,  we  come  to  exult  even  in  tribulation,  inasmuch 
as  we  know  [in  our  experience]  that  such  tribulation  works 
out  [produces]  patience  ;  and  patience,  a  state  of  proved 
integrity  ;  and  this,  a  stronger  hope — which  hope  can  never 
disappoint  us  because  our  love  toward  God  is  quickened 
and  inspired  unto  overflowing  by  the  Holy  Ghost  given  us 
of  God.  On  this  last  point  Paul  teaches  elsewhere  most 
abundantly  (a)  That  the  Holy  Ghost  dwells  in  Christian 
hearts  as  in  a  temple  (1  Cor.  3:  16  and  6:  19  and  2  Cor.  6  : 
16)  ; — and  (b).  That  one  of  his  special  functions  is  to  in- 
spire love  in  the  christian  heart  and  make  this  love  an  ear- 
nest or  pledge  of  God's  responsive  love  and  final  ajiproval 
and  reward,  (2  Cor.  1  :  22  and  Eph.  1:  13,  14). 

6.  For  when  we  were  yet  without  strength,  in  due 
time  Christ  died  for  the  ungodly. 

7.  For  scarcely  for  a  righteous  man  will  one  die  :  yet 


50  ROMANS.— CHAP.  V. 

peradventiire  for  a  good  man  some  would  even  dare  to 
die. 

8.  But  God  commendetli  liis  love  toward  us,  in  tliat, 
while  we  were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for  us. 

There  are  facts  in  this  gospel  scheme  which  bear  with 
great  power,  both  to  evince  God's  wondrous  love  for  us  and 
to  quicken  our  responsive  love  to  Him.  These  facts  are 
brought  out  here  to  verify  what  Paul  has  been  saying,  and 
are  therefore  introduced  by  "for"  (gar).  What  he  has 
said  of  our  "peace  with  God;"  of  our  "  access  by  faith 
into  "  this  precious  state  of  grace  ;  of  the  reason  we  have 
for  even  "  glorying  in  tribulation,"  must  be  most  true  for 
while  we  w^ere  yet  helpless,  powerless,  utterly  hopeless  of 
self-recovery, — in  due  time  Christ  died  for  us  sinners. 
This  was  ilideed  a  marvellous  thing,  ^^ for"  (v.  7)  scarcely 
Avould  any  one  die  for  a  man  merely  righteous,  though  for 
the  really  good  man,  possibly  one  might  dare  to  die.  But 
God  sets  forth  his  love  in  strong  relief — we  might  even  say 
he  glorifies  it,  inasmuch  as,  while  we  were  yet  sinners, 
Christ  died  for  us.  Infinitely  far  from  being  good — far 
even  from  being  just — indeed  being  positively  Avicked 
rebels — even  then  Christ  laid  down  his  life  for  us.  There 
were  representative  men  around  his  very  cross  gnashing 
their  teeth  upon  him  in  rage  and  taunting  him  with  in- 
sults while  he  was  meekly  enduring  those  awful  agonies 
and  pouring  forth  his  very  heart's  blood  unto  death  for  the 
guilty. 

9.  Much  more  then,  being  now  justified  by  his  blood, 
we  shall  be  saved  from  wrath  through  him. 

10.  For  if,  when  we  were  enemies,  we  were  recon- 
ciled to  God  by  the  death  of  his  Son ;  much  more,  being 
reconciled,  we  shall  be  saved  by  his  life. 

The  argument  here  is  at  once  plain  and  of  surpassing 
moral  power.  If  from  being  enemies  we  are  brought  into 
peace  with  God  through  Christ's  death,  how  much  more, 
having  become  his  friends,  shall  we  attain  final  salvation, 
through  the  power  of  his  resurrection-life.  Now  that  He 
lives  and  reigns  in  heaven  to  send  down  the  fulness  of  his 
Spirit,  energizing  in  Christian  hearts,  shall  not  his  immor- 
tal life  finish  what  his  death  so  auspiciously  began  ? 
Brought  out  of  condemnation  and  death  into  spiritual  life 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  V.  51 

and  peace  through  his  atoning  death,  how  much  more  shall 
we  be  upheld  and  borne  triumphantly  through  to  immortal 
glory  by  his  life  ? 

11.  And  not  only  so,  but  we  also  joy  in  God  throngli 
oiir  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  we  have  now  received 
the  atonement. 

To  what  docs  the  phrase — ''  and  not  only  this '' — refer  ? 
Stuart  answers — To  v.  3.  where  the  same  Greek  words  oc- 
cur. Hence  he  Avould  parphrase  thus  :  Not  only  do  we 
rejoice  in  affliction  (v.  3.)  as  tending  to  produce  a  hope  of 
glory  etc.,  but  we  rejoice  in  God. — The  great  objection  to 
this  is  that  this  antecedent  is  too  remote  and  too  long 
passed  out  of  mind.  It  is  better  to  refer  it  to  ''  being  re- 
conciled" in  the  verse  preceding ;  thus  :  Not  only  are  we 
reconciled  to  God,  but  we  are  even  exultant  in  God  through 
Jesus  Christ  by  whom  we  have  obtained  this  reconciliation 
— for  so  this  clause  sliould  be  translated.  "  Reconcilia- 
tion" is  the  old  and  mostly  obsolete  sense  of  the  word 
atonement  [at-one-ment].  Our  translators  had  no  thought 
of  the  modern  sense  of  the  word  atonement,  viz.  the  provi- 
sion made  in  Christ  for  the  safe  pardon  of  sin. 

12.  "Wherefore,  as  by  one  man  sin  entered  into  the 
world,  and  death  by  sin ;  and  so  death  passed  upon  all 
men,  for  that  all  have  sinned : 

13.  (For  until  the  law  sin  was  in  the  world :  but  sin 
is  not  imputed  when  there  is  no  law. 

14.  Nevertheless  death  reigned  from  Adam  to  Moses, 
even  over  them  that  had  not  sinned  after  the  similitude 
of  Adam's  transgression,  who  is  the  figure  of  him  that 
was  to  come. 

15.  But  not  as  the  offence,  so  also  is  the  free  gift : 
for  if  through  the  offence  of  one  many  be  dead,  much 
more  the  grace  of  God,  and  the  gift  by  grace,  which  is 
by  one  man,  Jesus  Christ,  hath  abounded  unto  many. 

16.  And  not  as  it  was  by  one  that  sinned,  so  is  the 
gift :  for  the  judgment  was  by  one  to  condemnation,  but 
the  free  gift  is  of  many  offences  unto,  justification. 

17.  For  if  by  one  man's  offence  death  reigned  by 
one ;  much  more  they  which  receive  abundance  of  grace 


52  ROMANS.— CHAP.  V. 

and  of  tlie  gift  of  righteousness  shall  reign  in  life  by 
one,  Jesns  Christ.) 

18.  Therefore,  as  by  the  offence  of  omq  judgment  came 
upon  all  men  to  condemnation ;  even  so  by  the  righ- 
teousness of  one  the  free  gift  came  upon  all  men  unto 
justification  of  life. 

19.  For  as  by  one  man's  disobedience  many  were 
made  sinners,  so  by  the  obedience  of  one  shall  many  be 
made  righteous. 

20.  Moreover  the  law  entered,  that  the  offence  might 
abound.  But  where  sin  abounded,  grace  did  much 
more  abound : 

21.  That  as  sin  hath  reigned  unto  death,  even  so 
might  grace  reign  through  righteousness  unto  eternal 
life  by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

This  passage  is  so  thoroughly  one  in  its  scope  and  bear- 
ings that  we  not  only  may  but  must  study  it  as  a  whole  if 
we  would  reach  its  true  and  full  sense. 

It  scarcely  needs  to  be  said  that  this  is  one  of  the  old 
Theological  battle-fields.  Yet  of  its  famous  war  history 
my  plan  of  scripture-exposition  forbids  me  to  treat.  The 
legitimate  sense  of  Paul's  words  is  all  I  have  to  seek,  and 
all  I  shall  attempt  to  give. 

I  propose  the  following  plan  of  ex2:)osition. 

1.  To  translate  the  passage,  expanding  where  it  may 
seem  necessary  into  brief  paraphrase. 

2.  To  group  together  the  points  of  analogy  between 
Adam  and  Christ  :  both  of  likeness,  similarity ;  and  also 
of  unlikeness,  dissimilarity. 

3.  To  treat  specially  the  difficult  or  contested  points  in 
the  passage. 

4.  Also  the  moral  purpose  of  the  Apostle  in  this  ex- 
tended analogue. 

1.  Translation. — (v.  12.)  Wherefore,  as  by  one  man 
sin  entered  into  the  world  and  death  by  sin,  and  so  [con- 
sequently] death  passed  over  all  men  inasmuch  as  all  had 
sinned.* 

(v.  13.)  For  until  the  written  law  [of  Moses]  there  was 
sin  in  the  world  ;  but  sin  is  not  taken  into  account  where 

*  The  clause  corresponding  to  "  as  "  (second  word  of  v.  12)  does 
not  appear  until  we  reach  v.  18,  19  ;  all  that  intervene  being  eesea- 
tially  a  parenthesis,  after  a  method  very  common  with  Paul. 


ROMAXS.-CHAP.  V.  53 

there  is  really  no  law.  (v.  14.)  But  death  reigned  from 
Adam  to  Moses  even  over  those  who  had  not  sinned 
[under  and  against  the  light  of  revealed  law]  in  the  man- 
ner of  the  sin  of  Adam  who  is  a  type  of  the  Coming  One 
[Christ],  (v.  15).  But  not  like  the  sin  [of  Adam]  is  the 
grace  [of  Christ]  ;  for  if  by  the  sin  of  the  one  [Adam], 
the  many  have  died,  by  how  much  more  shall  the  grace  of 
God  and  the  free  gift  in  the  grace  coming  through  the  one 
man  Christ  Jesus,  abound  unto  the  many.  (v.  16).  And 
this  free  gift  is  not  as  by  the  one  sinning  man  ;  for  the 
sentence  of  the  law  is  from  one  sinning  man  unto  condem- 
nation ;  but  the  grace  is  from  many  sins  unto  justification. 
(v.  17).  For  if  by  the  sin  of  the  one  [Adam]  death  reigned 
by  the  one,  by  how  much  more  shall  they  who  receive  the 
abundance  of  the  grace  and  the  [abundance  of  the]  free 
gift  of  righteousness  reign  in  life  through  the  One,  Jesus 
Christ.— (v.  18)  Therefore,  as  by  one  sin,  sentence  was 
upon  all  men  unto  condemnation  ;  so  also  by  one  righ- 
teousness is  the  free  gift  iijDon  all  men  unto  justification  of 
life. — (v.  19).  For  as  by  the  disobedience  of  one  man 
[Adam]  the  many  became  [were  constituted]  sinners,  so 
also  by  the  obedience  of  the  one  shall  the  many  become 
[be  constituted]  righteous. — (v.  20).  But  law  entered  that 
the  offence  [the  guilt  of  sin]  might  abound  [i.  e.  be  natu- 
rally the  greater  because  of  the  greater  light  sinned  against] ; 
but  where  the  sin  abounded,  the  grace  did  superabound. — 
(v.  21).  That  as  the  sin  reigned  in  the  death,  so  also  the 
grace  should  reign  through  justification  unto  eternal  life, 
by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

2.  We  group  the  points  of  analosry  between  Adam,  and 
Christ. 

(a.)   Of  likeness,  similarity. 

(1.)  The  central  figure  in  the  doom  of  the  race  on  the 
one  hand,  and  its  rescue  on  the  other,  is  in  each  case  one 
man;  from  Adam  is  the  doom;  from  Jesus  Christ,  the 
rescue. 

I  (2.)  By  the  one  man  Adam  sin  entered  and  death  fol- 
lowed upon  all  the  race.  By  the  other  one  Man  [Jesus 
Christ]  redemption  came,  with  its  provisions  and  possibili- 
ties for  all  the  race,  and  its  actualities  for  all  believers. 

(b. )  Points  of  unlikeness. 

The  fall  sprang  from  a  single  sin  ;  yet  even  from  a  be- 
ginning so  small,  the  ruin  of  death  came  upon  the  race  ; 


54  ROMANS.— CHAP.  V. 

but  the  redemption  starts  with  forgiving  the  many  offences 
of  every  pardoned  soal,  and  goes  on  still  with  more  blessings 
upon  the  most  liberal  scale. — This  is  the  point  of  the  argu- 
ment in  vs.  15,  17,  and  (the  reader  should  observe)  in  this 
point  the  negative  idea  is  made  specially  emphatic  ; — Not  as 
the  sin,  so  is  the  great  grace,  for  inasmuch  as  by  the  sin  of 
the  one  [Adam],  the  many  die,  by  how  much  more  (a  point 
of  unlikeness  because  grace  is  more  affluent  than  justice) — 
by  lioio  much  more  shall  the  grace  of  God  and  the  free  gift 
embosomed  in  the  grace  which  comes  in  the  one  man  Jesus 
Christ,  abound  unto  the  many.  Then  v.  16  makes  this  point 
of  unlikeness  yet  more  distinct.  The  free  gift  is  not  like 
the  doom  through  the  one  sinning  man  ;  for  that  sentence 
is  from  one  sin  unto  condemnation  ;  but  this  free  gift 
begins  with  blotting  out  many  offences,  and  culminates  in 
justification.  And  then  v.  17  draws  out  the  point  of  an- 
tithesis still  more  fully,  tracing  the  reign  of  death  to  the 
sin  of  the  one  man  Adam  ;  but  inferring  that  much  more 
must  those  who  receive  not  merely  grace  but  the  ahund- 
ance  of  the  grace  and  also  the  abundance  of  the  free  gift  of 
righteousness,  reign  in  life  through  the  One  man  Christ 
Jesus. 

Then  by  way  of  general  conclusion,  v.  18.  puts  the 
great  point  of  similarity  (essentially  the  same  as  No.  2 
above)  ;  By  one  sin  (Adam's)  the  sentence  came  upon  ail 
men  unto  their  condemnation  ;  So  by  one  great  righteous- 
ness (that  of  Christ)  do  blessings  come  to  all  men  (to  the 
race)  unto  justification.  Then  v.  19.  follows  with  only  the 
change  of  terms,  contrasting  the  disohedieiice  of  Adam  with 
the  ohedience  of  Christ ; — the  many  becoming  sinners  in 
conseqiience  of  the  former  ;  the  many  also  becoming  righ- 
teous in  consequence  of  the  latter. 

Such  then,  are  the  salient  points  in  this  very  extended 
analogy  between  Adam  on  the  one  hand — the  one  head  of 
the  race  with  special  reference  to  its  becoming  a  sinning 
and  therefore  a  mortal  race  ; — and  Christ  on  the  other  hand 
— the  one  Supreme  head  of  the  race  with  reference  to  its 
redemption. 

3.  Some  diffictilt  or  contested  points  should  receive  at- 
tention. (1.)  Death  can  have  no  other  sense  here  than  that 
of  human  mortality — that  doom  of  death  upon  the  race 
which  followed  sin.  No  other  sense  of  the  word  can  be 
reasonably  thought  of. 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  V.  55 

(2.)  The  last  clause  of  v,  13.  ("for  that  all  have 
sinned  ")  has  raised  two  questions  :  the  first,  grammatical, 
upon  the  exact  sense  of — "for  that"  (Gr.  epi.)  which  I 
take  to  mean — Inasmuch  as,  or  because, — assuming  in 
general  the  fact  of  universal  sin. — The  second  theological, 
involving  this  class  of  questions  : — Does  Paul  affirm  only 
that  the  race  as  such  are  sinners  ;  that  this  is  the  common 
law  ;  that  all  human  beings  do  in  fact  sin  when  they  reach 
moral  accountability  unless  special  grace  interpose  etc.  etc. 
Or  does  he  purposely  affirm  its  absolute  universality, 
making  it  coextensive  with  death  ;  and  therefore  involv- 
ing the  sin  of  infants,  born  or  unborn,  of  idiots  also,  and 
the  irrational  animals, — since  all  these  come  under  the 
reign  of  death. 

Now  if  we  propose  to  treat  this  as  a  question  of  interpre- 
tation to  be  solved  by  its  legitimate  laws,  our  vv^ay  is  clear. 
The  degree  or  measure  of  universality  in  the  word  "  all" 
must  turn  upon  the  bearing  of  this  point  in  the  writer's 
argument — in  other  words,  upon  the  nature  of  the  case. 
Did  his  argument  require  anything  more  than  the  general 
fact  of  sin  in  the  race  consequent  upon  the  first  sin — that 
of  Adam*  ?  Was  it  at  all  vital  to  his  argument  to  show 
that  infants  must  be  sinners  even  before  they  are  born,  that 
idiots  are  sinners,  and  that  the  brute  creation  (since  they 
too  die)  must  be  sinners  ? 

If  you  could  ask  this  great  Apostle  ; — Did  you  intend 
to  say,  or  to  assume,  that  sin  exists  without  the  exercise  of 
moral  agency ;  with  no  present  knowledge  of  duty  to  sin 
against ;  with  no  idea  of  law  to  be  violated  ?  He  would 
(we  may  suppose) — reply  :  I  had  not  the  least  occasion  to 
express  any  opinion  on  those  points.  Everybody  knows 
that  this  is  a  sinning  race.  That  is  all  which  my  argument 
calls  for. — Perhaps  he  would  add — You  will  do  me  the  jus- 
tice not  to  interpret  into  my  words  more  than  I  meant  or 
had  occasion  to  say. 

The  reader  will  readily  notice  that  while,  on  this  point  of 
general  sinfulness,  Paul  simply  said  "All  have  sinned,"  and 
left  it  there,  resting  obviously  upon  the  universally  known 

*  This  principle  will  be  readily  understood.  When  Matthew 
wrote  (3  :  5,  6)  that  Jerusalem  and  all  Judeaand  all  the  region  .  .  . 
went  out  to  hear  Him  and  were  baptized  of  him,  this  case  did  not  re- 
quire that  this  "  a^r' should  include  the  infants  or  the  invalids. 
The  common  sense  of  the  case  forbids  this  extreme  universality. 


56  ROMANS.— CHAP.  V. 

and  undeniable  fact,  yet  he  did  go  somewhat  particularly 
into  another  question,  viz.  the  existence  of  sin  and  death 
in  the  world  during  the  interval.  The  reason  for  this 
special  discussion  is  sufficiently  obvious.  He  is  writing  to 
Jews.  They  understand  very  well  that  sinning  presup- 
poses some  known  hiw.  Paul  also  held  this.  They  made 
very  great  account  of  the  law  given  through  Moses,  and 
seem  to  have  had  extreme  views  of  the  moral  darkness  and 
ignorance  of  law  among  mere  heathen — e.  g.  in  the  period 
before  Moses.  But  Paul's  doctrine  (brought  out  iu  Eo- 
mans  2)  is  that  not  having  any  written  law,  they  were  a  law 
unto  themselves,  their  own  moral  nature  (reason  and  con- 
science) affirming  to  them  moral  right  and  wrong.  Hence 
men  could  and  did  sin  during  that  interval  between  Adam 
and  Moses ;  and  consequently  death  could  legitimately 
reign  there. — This  exception  which  the  Jew  might  be  sup- 
posed to  make  to  the  general  sinfulness  of  the  race,  Paul 
did  deem  it  important  to  notice  as  we  see.  The  other 
points,  so  often  mooted  in  theological  controversy,  Paul 
utterly  ignores; — but  the  candid,  discriminating  reader  will 
certainly  notice  that  the  doctrine  [or  principle]  assumed 
(v.  13, 14)  in  the  case  of  heathen  without  written  law  covers 
fully  all  the  theological  points  extra  that  have  been  made 
(as  above)  over  the  clause  "all  have  sinned."  If  sin  pre- 
supposes known  law  (written  or  unwritten),  it  certainly  must 
presuppose  the  mental  capacities  necessary  for  knowing  law 
and  the  moral  sense  necessary  for  recognizing  its  claims. 
For  what  is  the  use  of  law  without  the  sense  to  know  what 
it  means  and  why  it  binds  to  obedience  ?  Indeed,  that 
some  knowledge  and  sense  of  law  must  be  possible  and  even 
present  to  the  mind  as  a  condition  precedent  to  real  sin 
needs  no  argument.  In  fact  it  belongs  to  a  realm  of  its 
own  in  which  argument  with  those  who  deny  it  is  simply 
useless — its  legitimate  realm  being  the  domain  of  the  uni- 
versal consciousness  and  common  sense  of  mankind. 

3.  A  third  question,  sometimes  warmly  controverted,  is 
forcibly  suggested  by  v.  19  ;  ''  As  by  one  man's  disobedi- 
ence, many  were  made  sinners,  so  by  the  obedience  of  one 
shall  many  be  made  righteous."  If  the  reader  shall  put  a 
strong  emphasis  upon  the  word  ^' made,"  he  will  see  the 
point  I  propose  to  consider  ; — viz.,  the  law  of  connection 
between  the  sin  of  Adam,  and  the  consequent  sin  and  death 
of  his  posterity  on  the  one  hand  ;  and  also  the  law  of  con- 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  V.  57 

nection  between  Christ's  redemptive  work  for  man  and 
man's  being  blessed  thereby,  on  the  other.  Here  on  the 
first  side  of  the  analogy,  the  question  is  not,  Why  and 
how  death  follows  Adam's  sin,  but  only  this  : — How  and 
under  what  law  of  connection  does  the  sin  of  Adam's  race 
follow  the  sin  of  Adam  ?  Are  Adam's  posterity  made  sin- 
ners by  his  sin  under  a  law  that  pays  no  regard  to  their 
voluntary  agency  ?  a  law,  for  example,  which  takes  effect 
and  makes  them  sinners  before  they  are  born,  and  certainly 
before  they  have  knowledge  of  moral  good  and  evil  ? 

This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  the  doctrine  of  sin  in 
Adam,  whether  upon  the  assumption  of  actually  being  in 
him  and  equally  responsible  in  the  moral  sense  with  him- 
self, or  as  representatively  in  him  by  virtue  of  God's  hav- 
ing constituted  him  to  act  morally  in  our  behalf,  holding 
us  to  all  the  guilt  as  well  as  all  the  consequences  of  this  sin. 
These  doctrines  I  must  pass  as  being  quite  unnecessary  to 
a  fair  interpretation  of  this  passage,  and  as  being  too  re- 
volting to  the  human  reason  and  conscience  to  be  accepted. 
The  Bible  doctrine  of  the  philosophy  of  sinning  is  su- 
premely sensible — well  put  by  James  (1:  13-15)  ;  *'•  Let  no 
man  say.  ...  I  am  tempted  of  God  ;  for  God  tempteth 
no  man  ;  but  every  man  is  tempted  when  he  is  drawn  away 
of  his  own  lust  and  enticed.  Then  when  lust  hath  con- 
ceived, it  bringeth  forth  sin." — This  same  philosophy  is 
put  elsewhere  "thus  : — '"  Sin  is  the  transgression  of  the 
law"  (1  Jn.  3:  4).  "  To  him  that  knoweth  to  do  good  and 
doeth  it  not,  to  him  it  is  sin  "  (James  4:  17).  "If  ye  were 
blind,  ye  should  have  no  sin."  (Jn.  9:  41).  "  Sin  is  not 
reckoned  "  (accounted  to  be  sin)  "  where  there  is  no  law  " 
(above  v.  13). 

Keturning  to  our  main  question — the  law  of  connection 
between  the  sin  of  Adam  and  the  sin  of  his  race,  consid- 
ered as  involved  in  the  words  of  v.  19 — "  were  made  sin- 
ners," I  have  two  things  to  say: — 

(a)  There  is  not  the  least  occasion  to  put  such  empha- 
sis and  force  into  the  word  "  made  "  as  must  over- ride  all 
that  the  Bible  elsewhere  affirms  as  to  human  sinning,  man's 
responsibility  in  all  sin,  the  necessary  and  assumed  pres- 
ence of  light  and  of  law  in  order  to  the  existence  of  sin 
etc.,  for  the  case  demands  nothing  more  than  the  proper 
sense  of  the  word  became — became  as  a  consequence,  with- 
out further  defining  the  law  of  connection.     The  great 


58  ROMANS.— CHAP.  V. 

argument  of  Paul  in  this  extended  analogy  between  Adam 
and  Chi'ist  did  not  by  any  means  require  a  law  of  connec- 
tion here  that  must  over-ride  all  which  the  scriptures  every 
where  assume  in  regard  to  the  nature  of  sin.  It  was  not 
necessary  to  his  purpose  to  show  that  God  made  men  sin- 
ners without  their  own  agency. 

(b)  If  on  the  first  side  of  this  great  analogy  we  demand 
the  law  of  resistless  connection  between  Adam's  sin  and 
the  sin  and  ruin  of  his  race, — a  law  that  over-rides  human 
agency  and  responsibility,  then  we  are  bound  to  carry  the 
same  law  over  to  the  other  side  of  the  analogue — "'  many 
shall  be  made  righteous " — Paul's  word  being  the  very 
same.  Under  this  ruling,  "  the  free  gift  [Christ's  salva- 
tion] comes  upon  all  (v.  18)  unto  justification  of  life  " — 
comes  by  resistless  connection  and  inevitable  consequence  ; 
comes  without  the  active  agency  of  sinful  men ; — and  so 
Ave  have  universal  salvation  under  a  law  of  necessity. 

4.  A  remark  may  be  due  on  v.  20  to  prevent  possible 
misapprehension.  In  the  words — "  The  law  entered  that 
the  offence  might  abound,"  we  must  understand  by  "  law  " 
the  written  law  given  through  Moses,  for  this  is  the  only 
law  which  can  be  said  to  have  '^  entered^'' — the  law  of  the 
human  reason  and  conscience  having  had  no  historic  en- 
trance— no  coming  in  at  any  historic  period — it  being 
coeval  with  man  as  a  rational  being.  This  allusion  to  the 
entrance  of  the  law  looks  back  to  v.  13,  14. — The  point 
specially  liable  to  misapprehension  is  this  :  Did  God  send 
that  law  by  Moses  in  order  tliat — to  the  end  that — sin  might 
the  more  abound  ;  or  only,  with  the  result  of  its  more 
abounding  i.e.  Was  the  greater  sin  the  thing  aimed  at,  or 
was  it  only  the  incidental  result  ? — I  judge  that  the  nature 
of  the  case  not  only  justifies  but  compels  us  to  the  second 
alternative — that  the  greater  sin  was  not  the  end  sought, 
but  the  result  that  followed  incidentally.  Then  God  met  it 
with  his  over-ruling  agencies  and  made  grace  superabound, 
all  the  more  by  means  of  that  greater  light  and  greater  sin. 

5.  It  only  remains  to  say  briefly  that  the  objects  Paul 
had  in  view  in  this  extended  analogy  between  Adam  and 
Christ  are  obvious  and  quite  too  important  to  be  over- 
looked. 

The  whole  passage  sets  forth  the  reign  of  grace  over 
against  the  reign  of  sin  and  death,  as  shown  by  putting 
in  antithesis  the  one  man  Christ  and  the  one  man  Adam. 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  V.  59 

Christ  and  his  work  are  shown  to  be  the  greater,  the 
richer,  the  more  glorious — in  the  following  special  points  : 
— (1)  The  gift  of  grace  by  Christ  abounds  (v.  15)  ; — (2) 
Christ's  work  begins  with  blotting  out  the  many  sins 
of  each  pardoned  soul ;  while  the  sin  of  the  race  began 
with  the  one  sin  of  Adam  (v.  16)  : — (3)  On  the  side  of 
Christ  is  aiundance  of  grace  and  ahundance  of  the  free 
gift  of  righteousness  (v.  17)  ; — 

(6)  Where  sin  abounded,  grace  superabounded  (v.  20). 

AH  these  richer  and  higher  things  on  the  side  of  Christ 
and  his  grace  are  made  to  bear  on  the  point  from  which 
Paul  started  (v.  11),  viz.  that  we  have  joy  in  God  even  to 
exultation  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  we 
have  the  reconciliation  to  God  the  Father.  Grace  is  more 
prolific  and  overflowing  than  mere  justice.  Justice  moves 
within  prescribed  limits,  and  has  no  overflow  ;  but  grace — 
divine  mercy — when  provision  has  been  made  (as  in  Christ) 
for  its  morally  safe  exercise — delights  to  pour  forth  its  af- 
fluence without  limit  or  measure  !  And  in  this  let  all  men 
rejoice  with  exceeding  great  joy  ! 


-C/Gci- 


C  HAP  TEE    VI. 

The  one  theme  of  this  chapter  is  a  protest  against 
abusing  free  grace  into  licence  for  sin — this  protest  bear- 
ing against  two  forms  of  this  abuse  : — (a)  "  Shall  Ave  sin 
that  grace  may  abound  ?  "  (v.  1-13),  and  (b).  "  Shall  we 
sin  because  we  are  not  under  law  but  under  grace  ?  "  (v.  14- 
23). 

Paul  assumes  that  all  who  are  in  Christ  are  thereby 
morally  dead  to  sin  (v.  2)  ;  committed,  pledged,  to  this 
death  unto  sin  by  their  baptism  into  Christ  (v.  3)  ;  which, 
honestly  done,  issues  in  rising  with  him  into  a  new  life  unto 
holiness  (v.  4);  the  analogy  of  dying  to  sin  further  explained 
(v.  5-7) ;  dying  with  Christ  and  living  with  and  unto  him 
still  expanded  {v.  8-13) ;  not  under  law  but  under  grace — 
the  fact  and  its  bearings  (v.  14-16);  the  facts  in  their  case 
and  the  fruits  thereof  (v.  17-23). 


60  ROMANS.— CHAP.  VI. 

1.  "VYhat  shall  we  say  then?  Shall  we  eontmne  in 
sin,  that  grace  may  abound  ? 

Paxil  knows  his  Pharisaic  reader  very  thoroughly  and 
readily  anticipates  his  cavilHng  abuse  of  the  doctrine  (v.  5- 
20) — "  Where  sin  abounded  grace  has  superabounded." 
"  Let  us  sin,  then,  that  there  may  be  the  more  grace  !  Why 
not  ?  Is  not  grace  a  good  thing — the  very  thing  you  extol 
so  highly  ?  " — Paul  devotes  v.  2-13,  to  his  specific  answer 
to  this  cavil ;  and  then  v.  14-23  to  a  very  similar  Pharisaic 
cavil ; — "  Let  us  sin  because  we  are  not  under  the  law,  but 
under  grace." 

2.  God  forbid.  How  shall  we  that  are  dead  to  sin, 
live  any  longer  therein  ? 

3.  Know  ye  not,  that  so  many  of  us  as  were  baj^tized 
into  Jesns  Christ  were  baptized  into  his  death  ? 

4.  Therefore  we  are  buried  with  him  by  baptism 
into  death  :  that  like  as  Christ  was  raised .  up  from  the 
dead  by  the  glory  of  the  Father,  even  so  we  also  should 
walk  in  newness  of  life.  . 

The  English  reader  should  know  that  Paul  is  entirely 
innocent  of  using  the  name  of  God  for  the  sake  of  empha- 
sis. He  would  never  take  the  name  of  God  in  vain.  All 
he  said  here  was — Let  it  not  he  !  Abhorred  be  the  very 
thought ! 

In  (v.  2.)  Paul  uses  not  the  common  but  the  special 
relative  pronoun  [''we  /Aa^ "]  in  this  pregnant  sense: — 
we  being  such  as  have  died  to  sin, — inasmuch  as,  by  our 
solemn  profession,  we  have  renounced  sin  forever,  how 
shall  such  men  live  any  longer  in  sin  ? 

In  order  to  understand  Paul's  admirable  reply  to  this 
cavil,  it  is  entirely  vital  that  we  reach  the  true  and  full 
sense  of  a  group  of  expressions  which  appear  first  in  this 
chapter,  all  based  upon  an  analogy  which  was  Paul's  special 
delight — viz.  the  analogy  between  Christ's  dying  for  sin 
once  for  all ;  then  rising  to  a  new,  glorious,  heavenly  life — 
this  on  the  one  hand  ; — and  on  the  other,  his  people  dying  to 
sin,  going  into  their  graves  with  Chrisc ;  and  then  rising 
again  by  Christ's  resurrection  power  to  a  new  spiritual  life 
unto  Christ.  Under  this  analogy  we  have  various  phrases 
to  represent  the  christian's  side  of  it ; — ''dead  to  sin  ^' — 
"baptized  into  Christ's  death"  (v.  3)  ;  ''buried  with  him 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  VI.  61 

unto  death  "  (v.  4.)  "  walking  in  newness  of  life  "  as  Christ 
did  after  being  raised  from  the  dead ;  '•'  our  old  man 
crucified  with  him  that  the  body  of  sin  may  be  destroyed  " 
(v.  6.) ;  "  dead  with  Christ"  (v.  8.),  ''  Reckon  yourselves 
dead  indeed  nnto  sin,  but  alive  unto  God  "  etc.,  (v.  11.)  In 
Col.,  2  and  3  Paul  again  builds  a  powerful  argument  and 
appeal  upon  this  same  great  analogy; — "Buried  with 
Christ;"  "risen  with  him;"  "dead  in  your  sins,  but 
made  alive  together  with  him,"  "dead  with  Christ,"  So 
that  ye  are  to  be  thought  of  as  "'  not  living  in  the  world," 
(Col.  2  :  24.)  "risen  with  Christ,  and  therefore  bound  to 
seek  those  things  which  are  above,  in  heaven"  (Col.  3:1.) 
"dead  and  your  life  hid  with  Christ  in  God."  (3:  3). 

It  hardly  need  be  said,  (and  yet  it  does  need  saying) 
that  on  the  Christian  side  of  this  great  analogy,  every  thing 
is  spiritual — all  is  to  be  taken  in  the  moral  spiritual  sense 
only.  They  do  not  die  out  of  the  world  in  the  physical 
sense,  but  only  in  the  spiritual:  they  are  not  buried  with 
Christ  either  in  a  watery  grave,  or,  in  his  rock-hewn  se- ' 
pulcher,  but  only  in  the  spiritual  sense  of  going  out  of  this 
world  of  sensual  loves  and  delights  by  utterly  renouncing 
all  those  things  for  the  sake  of  Christ  and  through  their 
supreme  devotion  to  his  love  and  his  will. — If  we  will  put 
into  the  term  "  world  "  the  idea  of  sensuality,  lust,  selfish- 
ness,— that  whole  group  of  interests,  pursuits,  ambitions, 
indulgences  of  appetite  and  passion  which  nnregenerate 
souls  live  in  and  live  for,  we  shall  be  able  to  understand 
Paul's  sense  of  dying  to  the  "  loorld  ;  "  being  dead  to  the 
world,  that  we  may  live  the  new  life  unto  God. 

We  may  safely  assume  that  Paul  loved  this  analogy  and 
used  it  the  more  freely  because  it  suggested — or  perhaps 
we  might  better  say — carried  in  and  with  itself,  the  fact 
that  a  glorious  moral  power  comes  forth  from  the  Saviour's 
dying  for  us  to  persuade  us  in  like  manner  to  die  to  sin 
and  to  all  worldliness  for  him;  and  also  again,  a  sublime 
moral  power  from  his  resurrection  to  inspire  his  people 
to  rise  with  him  to  their  new  and  glorious  spiritual  life. 
Here  we  may  say,  are  two  distinct  lines  of  moral  power  ; — 
(a,)  The  inspiration  of  his  example,  also  of  the  living 
hope  that  we  shall  soon  rise  to  our  glorious  immortality  as 
he  to  his  ; — and  (b.)  The  fact  that  the  same  divine  Spirit 
who  raised  him  from  the  dead,  raises  his  people  also  to 
their  new  spiritual  life. 


62  ROMANS.— CHAP.  VI. 

Let  us  emphasize  yet  again  the  point  that  on  the  Chris- 
tain  side,  this  death  is  purely  and  only  spiritual.  It  is 
voluntary,  a  self-crucifixion,  a  willing,  consenting  death. 

Hence  Paul  has  it  (v.  11.) — ^'Reckon  yourselves  to  be 
dead  indeed  unto  sin  but  alive  unto  God."  It  is  a  thing 
of  your  own  will ;  it  turns  upon  your  accounting  yourselves 
to  be  divorced,  shut  off,  from  all  earthliness,  worldliness  ; 
and  on  this  basis  (as  we  shall  see)  Paul  exhorts — "  Let  not 
sin  reign  in  your  mortal  body;"  "yield  not  your  mem- 
bers as  instruments  of  unrighteousness  unto  sin  ;  but  yield 
them,"  (by  dint  of  your  own  will  and  by  help  of  God's  grace) 
"as  instruments  of  righteousness  unto  God." 

For  the  purpose  of  a  more  full  exposition  of  vs.  2-5, 
it  is  now  in  place  to  study  the  phrase  "  baptized  into 
Christ." — Let  it  be  carefully  noted  that  "baptized  into 
Christ,"  and  "  baptized  into  the  name  of  Christ,"  are 
equivalents  for  the  same  idea.  Our  authorized  version  mis- 
leads some  to  suppose  that  when  the  minister  says — "  I  bap- 
tize thee  in  the  name  of  Christ,"  he  means — in  lehalf  of 
Christ,  acting  for  him  and  in  his  name.  This  mistake  is 
radical,  and  tlierefore  exceedingly  unfortunate.  The  trans- 
lation should  be — Baptize  into  the  name;  and  this  is  pre- 
cisely the  same  as  baptize  into  Christ  himself ; — which 
means,  being  brought  by  baptism  into  special  relations  to 
Christ — brought  into  his  family,  into  his  service,  into  most 
perfect  communion  and  fellowship  with  him.  Baptism  is 
the  christian  rite  of  initiation,  analogous  to  the  sacred 
oath  by  which  the  soldier  gives  himself  to  the  army-ser- 
vice of  his  country  for  life  or  death.  It  signifies  and  car- 
ries in  itself  the  supreme  consecration  of  himself  to  Christ. 
Such  consecx-ation  is  the  meaning  of  baptism.  By  it  the 
baptized  are  brought  into  Christ.  Thenceforward  they 
are  no  longer  out  of  Christ  but  in  him — in  him  by  conse- 
cration, in  him  by  love  and  trust,  through  most  sacred  and 
solemn  vows. 

Now  if  the  reader  will  fasten  in  his  mind  this  sense  of 
the  phrase,  "  baptized  into,"  he  will  understand  those  Scrip- 
tures which  say, — "  Our  fathers  were  all  baptized  into  Moses 
in  the  cloud  and  in  the  sea"  (1  Cor.  10  :  1,  2) ;  "  Were  ye 
baptized  into  the  name  of  Paul  ?  I  thank  God,  I  baptized 
none  of  you  but  Crispus  and  Gains  ; — lest  any  should  say 
I  baptized  into  my  own  name  " — binding  them  to  be  my 
disciples  rather  than  the  disciples  of  Christ  (1  Cor.  1  :  13- 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  VI,  63 

15). — The  passage  (Acts  19  :  3)  is  slightly  obscured  by 
"  unto"  instead  of  into.  "  Unto  what  then  were  ye  bap- 
tized ?  " — which  should  have  been — Into  what  (whom  ?) 
then  were  ye  baptized? — The  special  authority  for  Christian 
baptism — '"'  Go,  disciple  all  nations,  baptizing  theirt  in  the 
name,"  etc.,  ought  certainly  to  have  been  translated — "  into 
the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost" — in  the  sense — brought  by  their  baptism  into  most 
solemn,  momentous  relations  to  the  triune  God — Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Ghost. — This  makes  plain  those  words  of 
Paul  (1  Cor.  13  :  13)  :  "For  by  one  Spirit  are  Ave  all 
baptized  into  one  body," — one  church.  This  also  puts 
into  sunlight  Paul's  words  to  the  Galatians  (3  :  27)  :  ''As 
many  as  have  been  haptized  into  Christ  have  put  on 
Christ." 

Coming  now  to  the  passage  before  us  here,  we  have  the 
sense  of  it  unmistakably.  "  So  many  of  us  as  were  bap- 
tized into  Jesus  Christ  were  baptized  into  his  death  ;"  i.  e., 
we  were  solemnly  committed,  pledged,  sworn  to  follow 
Him  into  a  real  death  to  sin,  an  utter  renunciation  of 
earthliness,  worldliness — even  as  dead  men  have  done  with 
earth,  and  even  as  Christ  also  died  to  earth  when  he  gave 
up  his  life  on  the  cross. 

Carrying  out  still  further  this  great  analogy  between  the 
Christian  and  his  dying  Saviour,  Paul  says  :  Therefore  we 
go  with  Christ  into  the  grave,  not  only  dead  with  him,  but 
iur'ied  also  ;  and  all  this  to  the  end  and  result  that  we  may 
rise  also  with  him  into  that  new  life,  so  like  Christ's  new 
life  in  heaven.  We  too  are  raised  from  our  graves  in  a 
manner  analogous  to  Christ's  resurrection,  that  as  He  was 
raised  from  death  by  the  Father's  glorious  power,  so  the 
same  glorious  power,  working  spiritually,  and  energizing 
within  our  souls,  wakes  us  from  death  to  walk  before  God 
in  the  new  Christian  life.  This,  beyond  question,  is  the 
meaning  of  these  verses  (3,  4). — We  shall  see  as  we  pro- 
ceed in  the  chapter  how  Paul  turns  the  same  idea  over  and 
over,  putting  it  in  new  terms,  changing  the  words  but  not 
the  sense,  as  if  he  meant  to  make  sure  of  being  correctly 
and  fully  understood. 

On  the  phrase — "Buried  with  him  by  baptism  unto 
death,"  a  side  question  is  certain  to  be  sprung  in  the 
minds  of  many  readers,  and  therefore  no  commentator 
can  excuse  himself  from  giving  it  his  attention.    The  ques- 


64  ROMANS.— CHAP.  VI. 

tion  is  in  substance  this  : — Does  not  this  allusion  to  burial 
hy  baptis7)i  assume  and  mean  immersion,  and  therefore 
prove  that  immersion  was  the  primitive  mode  ? 

I  have  treated  this  question  somewhat  fully  in  my  notes 
on  Col.  2  :  12  ;  but  it  should  be  considered  here  also. 

I  find  no  allusion  here  to  the  external  mode  of  baptism 
and  think  we  are  precluded  from  finding  here  any  reference 
to  immersion — for  the  four  following  reasons  : 

1.  This  great  analogy — dying  to  sin  and  rising  to  new 
life  even  as  Christ  died  and  rose  again — occurs  in  Paul  in 
a  very  large  number  of  passages,  yet  in  only  two  is  there 
the  slightest  allusion  to  baptism  {viz.,  here  and  in  Col.  2  : 
12)  ;  and  these  are  made  so  briefly  that  not  a  hint  is  given 
of  •'  going  down  into  the  water  "  for  baptism,  and  certainly 
not  a  word  of  "  coming  up  out  "  of  those  waters.  Now  it 
seems  to  me  simply  incredible  that  if  this  great  analogy 
were  built  upon  the  mode  of  baptism,  there  should  be  only 
these  two  very  meager  allusions  to  baptism  in  any  sense  of 
it,  and  none  whatever  to  the  last  and  perhaps  most  impor- 
tant half  of  immersion^— the  coming  up  out  of  the  bap- 
tismal waters. 

2.  The  mind  of  Paul  is  certainly  upon  the  spiritual 
significance  of  baptism,  which  means,  its  bringing  the 
baptized  man  into  Christ — into  new  and  immensely  vital 
relations  of  service,  love  and  trust ;  and  therefore  is  not 
upon  the  external  mode  of  baptism.  The  great  and  vital 
point  of  the  analogy  is  the  dying  with  Christ,  and  then 
being  raised  with  Christ  and  living  the  new  life  for  and 
unto  him.  This  is  equivalent  to  saying  that  this  analogy 
is  not  built  upon  the  mode  of  baptism,  but  is  built  upon 
the  resemblance  between  the  Christian's  great  change  from 
death  to  life,  and  Christ's  analogous  change  from  his 
earthly  life  through  death,  unto  his  heavenly  life. 

If  in  reply  to  this  it  be  said — Paul  had  both  the  mode 
of  baptism  and  this  spiritual  analogy  also  before  his  mind, 
I  have  only  to  answer.  By  no  means.  That  is  utterly  un- 
natural and  virtually  impossible.  No  clear-thinking  mind 
(Paul's  was  such)  can  manage  and  work  such  a  double  anal- 
ogy. A  clear,  sensible  analogy  must  rest,  so  far  as  bap- 
tism is  concerned,  upon  either  its  outward  significance  or 
its  inward,  and  not  upon  both  at  the  same  instant.  In  the 
case  of  Paul,  we  must  say,  certainly  not  upon  the  outward 
to  the  exclusion  of  the  inward. 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  VI.  65 

3.  Burial  is  here  at  all  because  it  lies  naturally  between 
death  and  resurrection.  From  death  we  reach  the  resur- 
rection only  through  the  grave  and  burial  therein.  It  was 
so  with  Christ ;  in  this  sj)iritual  analogy  it  is  so  with  his 
people.  They  not  only  die  to  sin — die  with  Christ,  but 
they  are  buried  also,  to  the  end  that  they  may  rise,  as  he 
did,  to  their  new  life,  analogous  to  his.  This  is  the  reason 
for  burial  here,  and  this  one  reason  is  sufficient.  More 
than  this  one  would  be  unphilosophical. 

4.  If  Paul's  thought  here  is  upon  the  mode  of  baptism 
and  upon  immersion  as  this  mode,  then  his  meaning  is 
this  : — Therefore  we  are  buried  with  Christ  in  the  baptismal 
loaters  unto  death.  The  immersion  must  be  carried  to  the 
point  of  real  death.  If  Paul's  mind  was  upon  the  mode, 
and  upon  immersion  as  being  this  mode,  then  his  Avords 
cannot  possibly  mean  anything  less  than  burying  the  man 
under  the  baptismal  waters  till  he  is  dead.  To  make  the 
burial  in  baptismal  waters  literal,  and  the  "unto  death" 
spiritual,  is  an  outrage  on  all  laws  of  just  interpretation. 

I  do  not  see  that  anything  more  need  be  said  on  this 
point,  unless  it  be  to  suggest  that  as  Paul  made  small  ac- 
count of  baptism  as  an  external  rite,  but  much  account  of 
its  spiritual  significance  ;  so  we  may  legitimately  infer  that 
he  could  not  make  much  account  of  the  mere  mode  of  that 
rite.  The  mode  must  be  of  even  less  importance  than  the 
rite  itself,  viewed  externally. 

5.  For  if  we  have  been  planted  together  in  the  like- 
ness of  his  death,  we  shall  be  also  in  the  likeness  of  his 
resurrection : 

6.  Knowing  this,  that  our  old  man  is  crucified  with 
hiin,  that  the  body  of  sin  might  be  destroyed,  that 
henceforth  we  should  not  serve  sin. 

7.  For  he  that  is  dead  is  freed  from  sin. 

A  new  phase  of  the  great  analogy  appears  here,  viz.  the 
jjJanting  of  seed  in  the  ground ;  its  undergoing  decomposi- 
tion there  ;  but,  as  the  result,  reappearing  in  fruitage  and 
glory.  Perhaps  Paul  had  in  mind  those  words  of  his 
Master  ; — '-'Except  a  corn  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and 
die,  it  abideth  alone  ;  but  if  it  die  it  bringeth  forth  much 
fruit  "  (John  12  :  24).  So  Paul  thinks  of  Christ's  people  as 
being  seed  planted  in  the  ground  like  Christ  in  his  grave, 


QQ  ROMANS— CHAP    VI. 

and  then,  like  him,  springing  up  in  the  glory  of  a  resurrec- 
tion to  noblest  fruitage. — "Knowing  this  "  calls  special 
attention  to  the  point  to  be  introduced.  Ye  ought  to 
understand  this  well — that  our  old  man  of  sin  must  needs 
be  thoroughly  crucified  as  Christ  was  on  his  cross,  that  the 
old  sin-body  may  be  destroyed — put  utterly  out  of  the 
way — so  that  henceforth  we  may  serve  sin  no  more.  All 
the  old  propensities — proclivities  toward  sensual,  sinful 
indulgence — must  be  slain. 

In  V.  6.  we  have  a  Greek  word  for  "freed"  (dikaioo), 
often  used  in  the  sense  of  "  Justified,"  but  here  in  the  some- 
what peculiar  sense — set  free,  acquitted,  absolved,  made  ' 
quit,  i.  e.  of  sin.  Then  under  Paul's  figure,  it  is  the  dead 
man  who  is  thus  set  free  from  sin,  for  he  has  passed  out  of 
the  earthly  sphere — out  of  the  range  of  worldly  influences, 
considerations,  temptations.  Happy  man  !  to  be  thus 
emancipated  from  bondage  to  flesh  !  If  his  voluntary 
spiritual  death  has  made  him  a  free  man,  thoroughly  dead 
to  the  powers  that  impel  toward  sin,  and  also  alive  to  all 
the  nobler  impulses  heavenward,  how  greatly  should  he 
rejoice  !  In  v.  18  Paul  uses  for  the  same  sense  the  com- 
mon word  for  emancipate  ; — •'  Being  emancipated  from 
sin,  ye  become  servants  unto  righteousness." 

8.  Now  if  we  be  dead  with  Christ,  we  believe  that 
we  shall  also  live  with  him  : 

9.  Knowing  that  Christ  being  raised  from  the  dead 
dieth  no  more  ;  death  hath  no  more  dominion  over  him. 

10.  For  in  that  he  died,  lie  died  unto  sin  once  :  but 
in  that  he  liveth,  he  liveth  unto  God. 

The  word  "  now  "  continues  the  same  subject,  yet  by 
presenting  a  new  phase  of  it.  If  we  have  died  with  "Christ 
[if  as  he  died  for  sin,  we  have  died  unfo  sin]  we  believe 
[reasonably]  that  we  shall  also  live  with  him  i.  e.  live  the 
new  spiritual  life,  even  as  he  lives  his  life  of  glory  and 
blessedness  above. — "'  Knowing  that  Christ  once  raised  from 
the  dead,  never  dies  more, — has  risen  above  all  death  for- 
ever. This  must  be  the  case  "for  "  (gar)  as  to  his  dying, 
he  died  in  behalf  of  sin  and  sinners  once  for  all ;  but  as 
to  his  living,  he  lives  henceforth  unto  God  and  for  the 
glory  of  his  kingdom  forever  more. — In  the  phrase  (v.  10) 
"  Christ  died  unto  sin  once,"  I  judge  that  the  facts  of  the 


ROMANS— CHAP.  VI.  67 

case  compel  us  to  take  these  words — ''died  unto  sia" — in  a 
sense  quite  unlike  what  they  have  when  said  of  his  people. 
Christians  die  unto  sin  in  a  spiritual  sense  which  assumes 
that  they  have  been  living  unto  and  for  sin,  but  live  so  no 
longer.  But  Christ  never  lived  unto  sin  in  that  sense,  and 
therefore  cannot  die  unto  sin  in  the  sense  which  applies  to 
their  case. — Christ  died  for  sin  in  the  sense  of  making 
atonement  for  it.  It  was  to  carry  out  the  analogy  with  the 
case  of  Christians  that  Paul  is  drawn  into  the  use  of  the 
same  words,  leaving  it  to  the  good  sense  of  his  reader  to 
modify  their  meaning  to  the  known  facts  of  his  case. 

11.  Likewise  reckon  ye  also  yourselves  to  be  dead 
indeed  unto  sin,  but  alive  unto  God  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord. 

The  reader  should  notice  carefully  that  this  Christian 
dying  and  living,  being  of  the  moral  sort  [not  physical] 
are  determined,  not  by  any  law  of  nature  and  necessity, 
but  by  their  thinking,  "  reckoning,"  willing  : — by  their 
accounting  it  so.  It  is  wholly  a  matter  of  their  free  pur- 
pose and  choice — in  this  respect  entirely  unlike  physical 
death  and  life  which  in  no  wise  turn  upon  our  own  ac- 
counting, "reckoning"  ourselves  to  be  dead  or  living. — 
If  this  distinction  is  thoroughly  considered  and  under- 
stood, the  Apostle's  meaning  will  appear  clear  and  per- 
tinent. 

12.  Let  not  sin  therefore  reign  in  your  mortal  body, 
that  ye  should  obey  it  in  the  lusts  thereof. 

13.  Neither  yield  ye  your  members  as  instruments 
of  unrighteousness  unto  sin  :  but  yield  yourselves  unto 
God,  as  those  that  are  alive  from  the  dead,  and  your 
members  as  instruments  of  righteousness  unto  God. 

These  verses  are  a  logical  inference  from  the  verse  pre- 
ceding. Death  and  life,  in  this  spiritual  sense,  belong  to 
the  voluntary  activities  of  your  soul.  It  is  for  you  to  say 
that  sin  shall  not  reign  in  your  mortal  body,  compelling 
you  to  obey  it  and  its  damning  lusts.  Ye  must  not  let  it 
reign  ! — Neither  surrender  your  bodily  powers  to  become 
the  instruments  of  sin  ;  but  consecrate  them  to  God  as 
men  made  alive  unto  God  from  your  old  death  in  sin.  Ye 
have  said — I  am  to  live  to  God  forevermore  !  This  means 
— I   am  to  be  the  slave  of  sin  no  more ;  I  am  no  more 


68  ROMANS.— CHAP.  VI. 

to  let  my  powers  of  either  body  or  mind  become  instru- 
ments of  unrighteousness,  but  only  and  wholly,  to  be  in- 
struments of  righteousness  unto  the  service  of  God, 

Here  the  reader  will  notice  that  thus  far  in  this  chapter 
Paul  is  answering  the  question  (of  v,  1)  ;  "Shall  we  con- 
tinue in  sin  that  grace  may  abound  ?"  and  that  he  answers 
it  by  saying — No  !  never  !  for  we  are  dead  to  sin  ;  are 
committed  against  sin  by  most  sacred  vows  and  obligations  ; 
are  dead  by  voluntary  renunciation  to  all  its  seductions, 
fascinations,  attraction  ; — and  we  live  unto  God  with  our 
utmost  strength  of  moral  purpose.  How  then  can  we 
allow  ourselves  to  sin  ? 

In  V.  2  Paul  uses  a  special  relative  [for  '•'  we  thai "]  in 
this  pregnant  sense  : — we  bei7ig  such  as  have  died  to  sin — 
inasmuch  as,  by  our  solemn  profession,  we  have  renounced 
sin  forever  : — how  shall  such  men  live  any  longer  in  sin  ? 

14.  For  sin  shall  not  Tiave  dominion  over  you  :  for  ye 
are  not  nnder  the  law,  but  under  grace. 

Closely  connecting  this  verse  with  the  preceding,  Paul 
seems  to  say  logically — Ye  are  free  to  give  your  powers 
unto  God,  for  sin  will  [future] — will  not  lord  it  over  you 
any  longer  (this  should  not  be  expected)  ;  sin  will  no  more 
play  the  tyrant  over  you,  because  ye  are  not  under  law 
but  under  grace. — But  what  does  this  mean  ?  In  what 
sense  of  laio  can  it  be  said — "  Ye  are  not  under  law  ?  " 
and  by  what  logic  does  it  follow  that  sin  shall  not  tyrannize 
over  men  because  they  are  not  under  law  but  under  grace  ? 

In  briefest  words,  the  answer  is — In  the  Pharisaic  sense 
of  "laio"  and  of  being  "under  law."  Paul  is  reasoning 
with  Pharisaic  Jews.  They  were  men  of  ''the  laio."  The 
old  Mosaic  law,  somewhat  badly  abused  and  over-loaded 
with  their  traditionary  interpretations  and  appendages, 
was  their  recognized  rule  of  life  ;  and  obedience  to  it  in 
their  sense  of  obedience,  was  the  ground  of  their  confidence 
in  God's  favor.  That  is  to  say — they  used  the  law  (in  their 
way)  for  both  sanctification  and  justification.  By  the  law 
they  would  become  holy  men  ;  by  the  law  they  assumed 
that  they  should  be  accepted  before  God  as  righteous  and 
should  inherit  eternal  life.  They  were  nnder  law  there- 
fore for  both  these  great  ends. 

But,  be  it  well  considered,  Paul  is  no  longer  a  Pharisee. 
He  does  not  believe  in  beins: "  under  law"  in  their  sense 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  VI.  59 

foi'  either  sanetification  or  justification.  He  has  no  faith 
in  law  (in  the  Pharisaic  sense)  as  a  power  either  to  save 
men  from  their  sins,  or  to  justify  them  before  God.  As  a 
power  to  save  human  souls  from  sin,  he  looks  to  grace- 
not  to  law  :  as  a  ground  of  justification  before  God,  he 
holds  to  faith  in  Christ  and  not  to  legal  righteousness — 
If  these  explanations  and  distinctions  are  thoroughly  un- 
derstood, we  shall  have  no  difficulty  with  Paul's  argument 
in  the  remaining  verses  of  this  chapter,  and  throughout 
the  next. 

15.  What  then  ?  shall  we  sin,  because  we  are  not 
under  the  law,  but  under  grace  ?     God  forbid. 

16.  Know  ye  not,  that  to  whom  ye  yield  yourselves 
servants  to  obey,  his  servants  ye  are  to  whom  ye  obey ; 
whether  of  sin  unto  death,  or  of  obedience  unto  righ- 
teousness ? 

As  Paul  comes  to  speak  disparagingly  of  the  Pharisee's 
peculiar  sense  of  ''  law,"  he  anticipates  their  cavil  ; — If  you 
take  us  out  from  under  law  and  put  us  under  grace,  you  give 
us  all  the  licence  to  sin  that  depraved  souls  can  desire  ! 
Why  shall  we  not  sin  now  all  we  would —  all  we  care  to — 
since  no  law  stands  in  our  way  ? 

Paul's  first  reply  is  an  outburst  of  horror  ; — Be  it  not 
so !  How  horrible  the  mere  thought  !  Should  we  sin  ! 
[more  accurate  than  shall  we] — should  we  sin  because  under 
grace  ? — He  will  take  occasion  in  the  sequel  to  say  that  law 
in  the  Pharisaic  sense  and  in  the  Pharisaic  use  of  it,  is  ut- 
terly powerless  to  save  the  soul  from  sin  ;  but  first  he  turns 
their  attention  to  the  terrible  bondage  of  sin,  under  which, 
so  long  as  they  give  the  loose  rein  to  its  lusts,  they  are  ut- 
terly enslaved.  When  they  turn  heartily  to  God  and  make 
themselves  willing  servants  under  him  to  the  ends  of  righ- 
teousness, all  is  well.  But  they  ought  to  know  that,  yield- 
ing themselves  to  be  the  bond-slaves  of  sin,  they  are  in 
most  fearful  bondage,  drifting  toward  a  dreadful  end  ! 

IT.  But  God  be  thanked,  that  ye  were  the  servants 
of  sin,  but  ye  have  obeyed  from  the  heart  that  form  of 
doctrine  which  was  delivered  you. 

Here  Paul  speaks  to  the  emancipated  souls  whom  God 
has  set  free.     The  phrase — "  God  be  thanked  that  ye  were 
4 


70  ROMANS.— CHAP.  VI. 

the  servants  of  sin  " — will  strike  every  reader  as  quite  pecu- 
liar. It  must  be  interpreted  in  one  of  the  two  following 
ways  ;  (a)  Putting  a  strong  emphasis  upon  the  word  "  were  " 
such  as  shall  fully  imply  that  the  bondage  is  wholly  past, 
and  is  present  no  longer  :  or,  (b)  Supplying  the  antithetic 
words  [adversative  conjunctions],  Tliougli  ye  were,  yet  ye 
are  so  longer.  The  former  construction  is  much  to  be 
preferred. — (1)  Because  the  word,  for  "were  "  is  made 
emphatic  by  position  :  and  (2)  The  usual  Greek  adversa- 
tive particles  for  the  second  construction  are  wanting,  but 
would  be  here  if  this  had  been  the  apostle's  way  of  putting 
his  thought. — (3)  It  is  always  well  (if  possible)  to  avoid 
introducing  more  words  into  the  text.  Our  business  is 
rather  to  interpret  the  words  we  have  than  to  bring  in  more 
and  other  words—- a  rule  which  obtains  in  every  case  where 
a  fair  sense  can  be  made  from  the  words  we  have. 

18.  Being  then  made  free  from  sin,  je  became  the 
servants  of  righteousness. 

As  already  suggested  (on  v.  7.)  "  free  from  sin  "  is  here 
in  the  sense  of  real  eraancijoation  by  victory  over  sin 
through  grace.  This  being  gained,  it  only  remains  that 
we  become  the  willing,  free-hearted  servants  of  righ- 
teousness. 

19.  I  speak  after  the  manner  of  men  because  of  the 
infirmity  of  your  flesh:  for  as  ye  have  yielded  your 
members  servants  to  nncleanness  and  to  iniquity  unto 
iniquity ;  even  so  now  yield  your  members  servants  to 
righteousness  unto  holiness. 

20.  For  when  ye  were  the  servants  of  sin,  ye  were 
free  from  righteousness. 

21.  What  fruit  had  ye  then  in  those  things  whereof 
ye  are  now  ashamed  ?  for  the  end  of  those  things  is 
death. 

This  ''speaking  after  the  manner  of  men  "  seems  to 
mean  a  method  of  obvious  illustration,  easily  understood. 

As  they  have  been  slaves  to  all  uncleanness  and  to 
abounding  growing  iniquity,  so  now  let  them  consecrate 
their  powers  to  righteousness,  unto  the  result  of  real  holi- 
ness, for  so  long  as  they  were  bond-slaves  of  sin,  they  were 
entirely  void  of  righteousness — had  none  of  it. 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  VI.  71 

"What  was  the  fruit  of  such  a  life,  full  of  deeds  they 
ought  never  to  think  of  without  shame  ?  Alas  !  the  end 
of  such  a  course  is  only  death  ! 

22.  But  now  being  made  free  from  sin,  and  become 
servants  to  God,  ye  have  your  fruit  unto  holiness,  and 
the  end  everlasting  life. 

23.  For  the  wages  of  sin  is  death ;  but  the  gift  of 
God  is  eternal  life  through.  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

This  contrast  is  at  once  clear  and  full  of  force.  The 
legitimate  fruit  of  holy  living — everlasting  life  ;  but  the 
wages  of  sin,  death  only,  death  wholly,  death  eternally  I 
and  in  character,  most  appalling! 

The  free  gift  of  God's  grace  to  those  who  live  right- 
ously,  eternal  life — over  against  that  awful,  everlasting 
death  ! 


-zco- 


CH  AFTER    VII. 

The  key  to  this  chapter,  the  clue  to  its  exposition  and 
bearing  in  the  great  argument  of  this  epistle,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  Pharisaic  idea  of  being  under  law  as  a  sys- 
tem of  salvation,  i.  e.  as  a  power  to  do  for  sinful  man 
two  things  : — (a.)  To  save  his  soul  from  sinning ;  and  (b.) 
From  condemnation  before  God  ; — i.  e.  to  give  him  both 
sanctification  and  justification. — This  discussion  really  starts 
from  chap.  6.  14— "For  sin  shall  not  have  dominion  over 
you,  for  ye  are  not  under  law  but  under  grace."  Taking 
up  this  point — no  more  under  law  in  the  Pharisaic  sense 
but  under  grace — Paul  goes  fundamentally  into  the  first 
part — the  being  under  law — to  show  (a.)  That  if  one  adopts 
that  religious  system,  he  must  needs  carry  it  through — 
work  in  it  and  under  it  while  it  remains  in  force  upon  him 
—illustrating  this  point  by  the  law  of  marriage  (v.  1-3)  ; 
— next  (b.)  That  by  the  dead  body  of  Christ,  the  demand 
for  the  old  Pharisaic  law  is  dead,  and  the  way  is  gloriously 
open  for  a  new  and  better  system — viz.  of  loving  allegiance 
to  Christ  and  the  really  redeeming,  saving  power  of  the 
gospel  (v.  4);    Next,  (c.)  That  tlie  old  system  is  utterly 


72  ROMANS.— CHAP.  VII. 

powerless  as  to  saving  souls  from  sin,  for  the  law  is  in  its 
nature  good  and  has  only  a  good  intent,  yet,  working  by 
itself  alone,  it  only  reveals  moral  obligation,  and  in  all  sin- 
loving  souls,  provokes  resistance  (v.  5-13)  ; — (d.)  That 
this  law  meets  the  approval  of  man's  moral  nature  [the 
"  nous  "]  and  serves  to  stimulate  this  moral  nature  to  re- 
sist the  clamorous  demands  of  the  lower  nature  [the 
"  sarx,"  flesh]  but  only  to  the  result  of  being  perpetually 
overcome  ; — for  depravity  being  universal  to  the  race,  the 
flesh  always  holds  sway  over  the  will  and  overpowers  the 
voice  of  the  moral  nature  [the  nous]  every  time  (v.  14-23); 
— (e).  Finally  victory  comes  at  last,  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord  (v.  24,25). 

1.  Know  ye  not,  brethren,  (for  I  speak  to  them  that 
know  the  law,)  how  that  the  law  hath  dominion  over  a 
man  as  long  as  he  liveth  ? 

2.  For  the  woman  which  hath  a  husband  is  bound  by 
the  law  to  her  husband  so  long  as  he  liveth ;  but  if  the 
husband  be  dead,  she  is  loosed  from  the  law  of  her  hus- 
band. 

3.  So  then  if,  while  hei'  husband  liveth,  she  be  mar- 
ried to  another  man,  she  shall  be  called  an  adulteress  : 
but  if  her  husband  be  dead,  she  is  free  from  that  law  ; 
so  that  she  is  no  adulteress,  though  she  be  married  to 
another  man. 

The  remarks  above,  introductory  to  this  chapter,  should 
be  considered  attentively.  The  reader's  thought  should  be 
held  closely  to  the  scope  of  Paul's  argument  — i.e.  as  made 
with  the  typical  Pharisee  of  his  age,  who  is  ^Hinder  laio" 
in  the  sense  of  seeking  to  find  in  his  observance  of  it  both 
the  power  that  sanctifies  and  the  \)0^ ex  VivAi  justifies. 

To  such  Pharisaic  Jews,  Paul  says — "Brethren  ;  know 
ye  not" — certainly  j'e  must  know  (for  I  speak  to  law- 
knowing  men) — ''that  the  law,"  (the  law  which  you  so 
much  honor)  "  has  dominion  over  the  man  "  [who  seeks 
salvation  under  it]  "  as  long  as  he  liveth  ?  "  Placing  your- 
selves under  law  for  the  purposes  of  salvation  according  to 
your  system,  ye  must  make  it  a  life-business,  to  be  prose- 
cuted as  long  as  ye  live.  Manifestly  nothing  less  than  this 
can  suffice.     Take  this  illustration  : 

The  married  woman  is  bound  by  the  marriage  law  to 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  VII.  73 

her  husband  while  living  (literally,  to  her  living  husband), 
but  if  the  husband  die,  she  is  released  from  the  law  of  her 
husband  {i.e.  from  the  law  which  binds  her  to  her  hus- 
band). Wherefore  (v.  3),  if  her  husband  being  still  living, 
she  becomes  another  man's  wife,  she  shall  be  called  an 
adulteress  (literally,  she  will  be  doing  business  as  an  adul- 
teress— running  that  business  as  a  profession,  and  there- 
fore fully  deserving  that  name).  But  if  her  husband  die, 
she  is  free  from  that  law  (of  marriage)  so  as  not  to  be  an 
adulteress  though  married  to  another  man. 

4.  "Wherefore,  my  brethren,  ye  also  are  become  dead 
to  the  law  by  the  body  of  Christ ;  that  ye  should  be 
married  to  another,  even-  to  him  who  is  raised  from  the 
dead,  that  we  should  bring  forth  fruit  unto  God, 

This  doctrine  of  the  law  of  marriage,  viz,  that  the 
death  of  either  party  severs  the  bond,  is  perfectly  clear  ; 
yet  we  may  suppose  it  had  a  pertinence  in  Paul's  argument 
quite  apart  from  its  clearness, — viz.  in  the  striking  analogy 
which  it  suggests  between  the  death  of  the  husband  and 
the  death  of  Christ.  As  the  husband's  dead  body  sunders 
the  marriage  bond  and  sets  the  wife  free,  so  Christ's  dead 
body  frees  us  (all  who  so  will)  from  being  in  the  Pharisaic 
sense  "  under  law  "  as  our  reliance  for  salvation.  In  this 
sense  we  become  dead  to  the  law  by  means  of  the  dead 
body  of  Christ. — Of  course  Christ's  dead  body  carries  with 
it  and  fully  signifies  his  incarnation,  death,  atonement, 
resurrection — all  those  sublime  and  mighty  moral  forces 
which  lie  in  the  gospel  scheme.  These  moral  forces  open 
to  us  an  entirely  new  method  of  salvation,  and  therefore 
at  one  master  stroke  deliver  us  from  the  old  law  (as  used 
for  Pharisaic  righteousness)  and  invite  us  to  a  new  mar- 
riage with  the  risen  Christ,  under  which  we  '•'  shall  bring 
forth  fruit  unto  God  " — this  fruit-bearing  having  reference 
to  the  passage  (6:  22);  "  ye  have  your  fruit  unto  holiness, 
and  the  end  everlasting  life." — Thus  we  are  married  not  to 
a  dead  Christ  but  to  a  Christ  living,  yea  risen  from  the 
dead  ;  while  around  his  death  are  clustering  evermore 
those  grand  moral  forces  in  which  lie  the  power  that  re- 
deems us  from  sin  and  from  its  condemning  curse. 

5.  For  when  we  were  in  the  flesh,  the  motions  of 


74  ROMANS.— CHAP.  VII. 

sins,  wliicli  were  by  tlie  law,  did  work  in  our  members 
to  bring  fortli  fruit  unto  death, 

6.  But  now  we  are  delivered  from  the  law,  that 
being  dead  wherein  we  were  held  ;  that  we  should  serve 
in  newness  of  spirit,  and  not  in  the  oldness  of  the  letter. 

The  logical  connection  with  what  precede.?,  indicated 
by  "for"  (gar)  is  of  this  sort : — Under  this  new  marriage 
relation  to  the  risen  Christ,  we  may  hope  to  bring  forth 
fruit  unto  holiness  and  God  ;  for  under  the  old  system  all 
worked  toward  sin  and  death  (v.  5)  ;  but  now,  under  this 
new  system,  we  serve  in  a  neAV  spirit,  unto  real  fruitage  to 
God.  "  The  motions  of  sins  "  is  more  literally  the  emotions 
of  sins — those  impulses  toward  sinful  indulgence  which  are 
stimulated  rather  than  suppressed  by  law  (simple  au- 
thority), and  which  work  with  energy  in  our  bodily  appe- 
tites aud  passions  unto  bringing  forth  fruit  to  death.  But 
now,  under  tlie  gospel,  we  are  freed  from  the  law,  i.e.  from 
any  necessity  of  resorting  to  it  to  use  it  in  the  Pharisaic 
sense  for  purposes  of  Salvation.  "  Being  dead  to  that 
under  which  we  were  held" — is  the  better  text — instead 
of  "  that  being  dead  wherein  we  were  held."  All  the  older 
manuscripts  concur  in  this  improved  reading.  The  reader 
will  notice  that  this  improved  reading  gives  us  the  identi- 
cal phraseology  in  which  Paul  so  much  delights — christians 
"  dead  to  sin  " — dead  to  the  old  Pharisaic  system  of  salva- 
tion by  works  of  law  etc. 

Now,  therefore,  being  dead  to  that  old  system  and  to 
law  in  that  sense  of  it  and  with  reference  to  that  Pharisaic 
use  of  it,  we  are  ready  to  serve  in  a  new  spirit,  not  accoi'd- 
ing  to  the  old  letter — this  new  spirit  having  for  its  central 
element  and  vital  force  the  moral  power  of  gratitude,  love, 
new  obedience  to  the  risen  Christ,  our  perfect  and  glorious 
Kedeemer. 

7.  "What  shall  we  say  then  ?  Is  the  law  sin?  Gol 
forbid.  Nay,  I  had  not  knoAvn  sin,  but  by  the  law  :  for 
I  had  not  known  lust,  except  the  law  had  said,  Thou  shall 
not  covet. 

8.  But  sin,  taking  occasion  by  the  commandment, 
wrought  in  me  all  manner  of  concupiscence.  For  with- 
out the  law  sin  loas  dead. 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  VII.  75 

9.  For  I  was  alive  without  the  Law  once  :  but  when 
the  commandment  came,  sin  revived,  and  I  died. 

10.  And  the  commandment,  which  loas  ordaitied  to 
life,  I  found  to  he  unto  death. 

11.  For  sin,  taking  occasion  by  the  commandment, 
deceived  me,  and  by  it  slew  me. 

Here  a  new  objection  is  sprung  upon  this  discussion, 
which  of  course  brings  up  a  new  question  to  be  put  and 
answered.  What  Paul  has  said  of  the  law  has  seemed  to 
imply  that  it  is  not  only  powerless  to  save  the  soul  from 
sinning,  but  worse  yet ; — is  even  provoking  men  to  greater 
transgression. — "What  then  shall  we  say  of  it  ?  Is  the  law 
sin  ?  Is  it  a  bad,  pernicious  thing,  a  positive  power  unto 
wickedness  and  truly  responsible  for  the  sins  of  men  ? 
Never  let  this  be  said  ! 

How  then  does  Paul  explain  himself  ?  On  this  wise  ; 
— (1.)  The  law  gives  me  a  deeper,  truer  knowledge  of  sin. 
For  indeed  I  should  have  had  no  just  sense  of  sin  but  for 
the  law.  To  be  yet  more  particular,  I  should  not  even 
have  thought  of  lust  as  a  sin,  if  the  law  had  not  said  to 
me — '•'  Thou  shall  not  covet." — (:?.)  The  law  stirred  up  my 
selfish  heart  to  resist  its  demands.  In  this  sense  it  took 
occasion  by  its  specific  commands  to  work  in  me  all  sorts 
of  lust — all  sinful  passions.  I  would  not  brook  control  ;  I 
could  not  endure  that  authority  which  forbad  me  the  in- 
dulgence of  my  propensities.  But  this  was  through  no  fault 
in  the  law  ;  it  was  wholly  through  fault  in  myself. — (3.) 
Notice  that  apart  from  law,  in  the  absence  of  its  authori- 
ty— sin,  in  this  particular  aspect  of  it,  was  dead  ; — at 
least  its  impulses  lay  dormant ;  no  exciting  cause  roused 
them  into  activity.  In  fact  before  the  law  came  to  act 
upon  me  I  was  alive  with  hope  ;  I  had  a  very  comfortable 
opinion  of  myself  ; — but  when  the  commandment  came,  sin 
sprang  into  life  and  activity  ;  I  died,  in  the  sense  that  my 
hopes  vanished.  I  saw  in  myself  sins  I  had  not  dreamed 
of  before. — This  is  no  strange  fact  of  human  experience. 
It  needs  no  great  amount  of  genuine  conviction  of  sin  undei' 
a  clear  pei'ception  of  God's  law  to  throw  the  human  soul 
into  the  agony  of  despair. — So  much  good  the  law  wrought 
for  me.  The  commandment  which  God  gave  as  a  means 
unto  life,  I  have  found  to  be  in  my  case  unto  death.  It 
seemed  to  ring  out  the  death-knell  of  doom  for  my  guilty 


73  ROMANS.'  CHAP.  VII. 

soul.  Then  v.  11  repeats  the  points  made  in  v.  8  with  slight 
variations.  In  the  same  sense  here  as  there  "  sin  takes 
occasion  by  the  commandment" — sin  being  here  as  there 
the  overmastering  proclivity  toward  self-indulgence,  despite 
of  God's  authority — the  imperial  demands  of  lust  in  the 
depraved,  unsubdued  heart  of  man.  This  sin-power  in  the 
soul  took  occasion  by  the  commandment  to  deceive,  and 
then  to  kill  him  ; — to  deceive  first,  in  the  sense  of  making 
it  seem  almost  right  to  resist  God's  prohibition  of  self-in- 
dulgence— moreover  putting  the  reasons  for  resisting  God's 
authority  in  strangely  fascinating  forms  and  so  bewitching 
the  soul  into  deeper  and  more  mad  rebellion.  This  again  is  a 
terrible  fact  in  the  experience  of  many  a  human  soul  under 
its  first  clear  apprehensions  of  God's  law  as  forbidding  long 
cherished  sin.  "  And  by  it  slew  me  " — for  my  fond  but 
blind  hopes  of  being  in  a  sort  right  before  God  went  down 
with  a  crash  before  these  appalling  revelations  of  my  own 
Avickedness  of  heart. — Thus  Paul  shows  that  the  law  work- 
ing conviction  of  sin  in  his  soul,  had  done  him  most  valu- 
able service. 

12.  "Wherefore  tlie  law  is  lioly,  and  the  command- 
ment holy,  and  just,  and  good. 

13.  Was  then  that  which  is  good  made  death  unto 
me  ?  God  forbid.  But  sin,  that  it  might  appear  sin, 
working  death  in  me  by  that  which  is  good :  tliat  sin  by 
the  commandment  might  become  exceeding  sinful. 

Wherefore  it  is  hereby  shown  that  the  law  is  holy  (pure 
in  every  demand) — just  (intrinsically  right) — and  good, 
beneficent  and  only  so  in  its  spirit  and  in  its  normal  in- 
fluence. How  is  this  then?  Does  "that  good  thing" 
(the  law  which  you  so  strongly  commend)  "  become  death 
to  me  "  ? — Never  let  that  be  said  ! — But  this  is  the  case  : 
"  The  sin"  (not  the  law  properly,  but  the  sin  in  me  which 
the  law  (innocently  as  to  itself)  stirred  into  such  activity 
— that  did  the  mischief  ; — that  wrought  in  me  the  real 
death. — In  this  construction  I  assume  that  the  words, 
"But  sin,"  are  Paul's  answ^er  to  the  question — Was  that 
good  thing  made  death  to  me  ?  Not  at  all  he  answers, — 
"  but  sin"  luas.  Sin  was  made  death  to  me.  And  then 
Paul's  thought  rushes  on  to  give  the  reason  and  show  the 
purpose  of  God  in  permitting  sin  to  work  out  such  results 
in  the  convicted  soul  of  man.     It  was  that  sin  might  mani- 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  VII.  77 

fest  itself,  working  death  in  me  by  that  good  thing  (the 
law,)  that  thus  by  means  of  the  commandment  sin  might 
become  an  exceedingly  great  sinner — that  is,  might  show 
itself  to  be  an  awfully  guilty  thing — a  power  of  intense 
depravity  in  human  souls  ;  a  spirit  of  rebellion  against 
what  is  infinitely  holy,  just  and  good.  In  the  last  clause 
of  V.  13.  our  version  should  not  be  taken  to  mean  that  by 
the  commandment  sin  might  tccome  more  sinful  than  it 
would  otherwise  be  ;  but  rather  that  it  might  be  shoton  to 
be  more  sinful — that  its  awfully  guilty  character  might  be 
more  thoroughly  brought  to  light. 

Let  me  here  call  the  reader's  special  attention  to  cer- 
tain features  in  Paul's  manner  of  i:)utting  things  in  this 
discussion. 

In  V.  5,  6,  Paul  says  "  we,"  and  carries  on  the  discus- 
sion, including  his  readers  with  himself  as  subjects  of  the 
experience  to  which  he  appeals. — In  a  different  way  in  vs. 
7-13,  he  regularly  has  the  first  person  "  I ;"  "me." — An- 
other point  to  be  noted  is  that  here  his  verbs  are  all  in  the 
past,  historic  tense.  That  is,  while  he  seems  to  be  speak- 
ing of  his  own  experience,  it  is  not  of  the  jn-esent,  but  of 
i\\e  past.  He  is  telling  us  how  the  law  broke  in  upon  his 
old  Pharasaic  life — flashed  upon  his  dark  soul  some  rays  of 
true  spiritual  light  as  to  the  nature  of  God's  law  ;  gave^him 
convictions  of  personal  guilt  never  felt  before  ;  and  thus 
smote  down  his  Pharisaic  hopes.  There  seems  to  be  no 
fair  way  to  treat  his  words  save  to  apply  them  to  his  own 
personal  experience  :  but  this  experience  is  certainly  that 
of  his  past  Pharisaic  life  and  not  of  his  then  present  Chris- 
tian life.  Every  verb,  every  clause,  is  of  the  past,  not  of 
the  present. — x4.swe  proceed  onward  from  v.  14.  we  notice 
a  sudden  and  total  change  in  the  tense  [time]  of  the  things 
he  affirms. 


14.  For  we  know  that  the  law  is  sj^iritual :  but  I  am 
carnal,  sold  under  sin. 

15.  For  that  which  I  do,  I  allow  not :  for  what  I 
wonld,  that  do  I  not ;  but  what  I  hate,  that  do  I, 

16.  If  then  I  do  that  whicli  I  would  not,  I  consent 
unto  the  law  that  it  is  good. 

17.  Now  then  it  is  no  more  I  that  do  it,  but  sin  that 
dwelleth  in  me. 


78  ROMANS.— CHAP.  VII, 

This  very  peculiar,  extraordinary,  yet  exceedingly  im- 
portant passage  (v.  14-25)  should  receive  careful  attention. 
One  of  its  very  peculiar  features  is  the  usage  of  the  "  I  " 
[ego],  and  in  the  present  tense  throughout — apparently 
(at  the  merely  superficial  view)  as  if  Paul  were  giving  his 
then  present  experience.  A  closer  view  will  show  that 
this  is  utterly  impossible — not  for  one  moment  supposable. 
[The  arguments  to  prove  this  will  be  given  hereafter]. 
Suffice  it  to  say  now  that  Paul's  use  of  '•  I "  [ego]  here  is 
not  historical  but  is  rhetorical ; — being  used  not  to  repre- 
sent his  then  present  experience,  but  the  universal  expe- 
rience of  man  as  a  depraved  being,  having  no  other  spiritual 
help  toward  virtue  except  law.  By  '•'  rhetorical  "  I  mean 
only,  a  clear  and  forcible  way  of  presenting  the  real  and 
vital  facts  of  the  case. 

It  may  conduce  toward  a  clear  presentation  of  the 
points  put  here  to  retranslate  the  passage  with  occasional 
explanations  interspersed,  thus  : 

(V.  14).  For  we  all  know  [in  our  inner  consciousness] 
that  the  law  is  spiritual-  [purely  excellent],  but  I  [fallen 
and  depraved]  am  fleshly  [as  opposed  to  "  spiritual"],  with 
the  strongest  proclivities  toward  sensual  indulgence  [the 
vital  sin-force  in  fallen  man],  and  am  really  sold  into  the 
bondage  of  a  slave  under  this  sin-power. — (v.  15)  ;  For 
what  I  am  doing  I  do  not  approve  ;  for  I  do  not  what  I 
would,  but  I  actually  do  what  I  hate  [i.  e.,  would  not]. — 
(v.  16).  Now  if  I  do  what  I  would  not,  I  speak  with  and 
for  the  law — endorsing  it  as  good. — (v.  17).  But  now 
[things  being  so]  no  longer  am  I  precisely  the  doer,  but 
the  indwelling  sin  in  me  [is  the  doer].  That  is  to  say,  the 
whole  of  my  being,  represented  here  by  "  I,"  does  not  enter 
into  this  doing  ;  it  is  rather  the  indwelling  sin  which  lives 
in  and  controls  my  lower  fleshly  nature. 

The  thoughtful  reader  will  observe  that  Paul's  way  of 
putting  these  points  is  rather  the  loosely  popular  than  the 
closely  metaphysical.  It  is  what  we  may  call  the  surface- 
view  of  human,  sinning  experience.  Even  the  heathen, 
when  his  long  dormant  moral  consciousness  first  wakes 
into  activity,  turning  his  eye  inward  and  beginning  to  take 
note  of  his  inner  moral  being,  will  tell  you  there  are  two 
egos,  two  distinct  selfs  there — one  pleading  for  the  right ; 
the  other  for  the  wrong  :  one  witnessing  for  God  and  vir- 
tue ;  the  other  clamorins:  for  the  old  sinful  indulgences. 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  VII.  79 

His  first  lesson  in  moral  distinctions  gives  him  a  dual  per- 
sonality in  his  own  soul.  He  must  think  there  are  two 
distinct  voices,  that  seem  to  speak  for  two  very  distinct 
and  even  opposite  entities  within. 

The  heathen  classics  abound  in  expressions  very  much 
like  these  of  Paul.  Who  can  say  but  he  may  have  read 
some  of  them  ? — XenopJion  (Cyrop.  6  :  1)  puts  these 
words  into  the  mouth  of  Araspes  : — •''  Certainly  I  must 
have  two  souls,  for  plainly  it  is  not  one  and  the  same  which 
is  both  evil  and  good,  nor  which  loves  both  honorable  con- 
duct and  base,  and  wishes  at  the  same  time  to  do  a  thing 
and  not  to  do  it.  Plainly  then  there  are  two  souls  ;  for 
when  the  good  one  prevails,  then  it  does  good  ;  and  when 
the  evil  one  predominates,  then  it  does  evil." — Epic- 
tetus  says  : — "  The  sinning  one  does  not  what  he  would, 
but  does  what  he  would  not." — Ovid:  "Desire  persuades 
one  way ;  mens  (the  mind  in  the  sense  of  man's  higher 
moral  nature),  persuades  another  way.  I  see  and  approve 
the  better;  I  follow  the  worse." — Seneca:  '"'I  testify  to 
you  that  I  am  unwilling  to  do  what  I  will,"  ["'  hoc  quod 
volo,  me  nolle  "]. — Lactantius,  a  Christian  writer,  repre- 
sents a  heathen  as  saying  :  ''I  indeed  will  not  to  sin,  but 
I  am  overcome,  for  I  am  clothed  with  frail  flesh.  There- 
fore I  am  led  about  in  all  uncertainties,  and  I  sin,  not  be- 
cause I  will  it,  but  because  I  am  compelled." 

So  the  man  of  strong  drink  will  tell  you  he  is  thorough- 
ly conscious  of  two  elements  or  forces  within  himself — the 
one  of  the  lower  nature  ;  the  other,  of  the  higher.  The 
one  cries — Indulge  ;  give  ;  give  : — the  other  remonstrates — • 
Abstain  ;  be  a  wiiole  man,  and  not  a  beast. 

Turning  back  to  note  more  carefully  the  words  (v.  15) 
"  I  allow  not,"  (Gr.  ginosko)  I  remark  that  some  critics 
take  this  word  in  its  primary,  usual  sense — hnoio  ;  while 
others  sustain  the  Auth.  Version  in  the  sense — allow  ;  ap- 
prove. The  former  insist  that  this  word  never  has  and 
never  can  have  the  sense,  alloio  j  the  latter  defend  this 
sense  as  sustained  by  the  usage  of  the  corresponding  He- 
brew word. — The  latter  view  is  strongly  supported  by  the 
context — i.  e.,  by  the  logical  inference  which  Paul  draws: — 
I  do  not  approve  of  what  I  really  seem  to  do  ;  for  it  is  not 
what  I  would  that  I  do,  but  what  I  would  not.  This 
shows  Paul's  meaning  to  be — I  do  not  approve  of  what  I 
really  do. 


80  ROMAKS.-CHAP.  VII. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  indication  throughout 
this  passage  that  Paul  meant  to  say — I  am  not  conscious 
of  what  I  am  about ;  I  do  things  not  knowing  what  I  do. 
This  would  bring  into  the  discussion  an  entirely  new  ele- 
ment— that  of  unconscious  doings — which,  I  take  it,  is  al- 
together foreign  from  Paul's  argument. 

18.  For  I  know  that  in  me  (that  is,  in  my  flesh,) 
dwellctli  no  good  thing :  for  to  will  is  present  with  me ; 
but  how  to  2^erform  that  which  is  good  I  find  not. 

19.  For  the  good  that  I  would,  I  do  not:  but  the 
evil  wliicli  I  would  not,  that  I  do. 

20.  Kow  if  I  do  that  I  would  not,  it  is  no  more  1 
that  do  it,  but  sin  that  dwellctli  in  me. 

21.  I  find  then  a  law,  that,  when  I  would  do  good, 
evil  is  present  v/itli  me. 

In  the  last  clause  of  v.  18,  all  the  older  manuscript 
authorities  omit  the  words,  ''I  find  not." 

I  translate  [with  paraphrase] — thus  :  (v.  18)  ;  "  For  I 
know  [consciously]  that  good  dwells  not  in  me,  /'.  e.,  in 
my  flesh  [in  the  lower  nature]  ;  for  the  icould — the  wisJiing, 
is  present  to  me, — lies  very  near  me  ;  often  present  to  my 
consciousness  ;  but  the  actual  doing  of  the  good  is  not — 
i.  e.,  is  not  thus  near,  with,  and  present  to  me. — (v.  19). 
For  I  do  not  the  good  I  would  ;  but  I  do  the  bad  I  would 
not ; — i.  e.,  my  actual  doing  is  the  bad  I  would  not,  and 
not  the  good  I  would — every  time. — (v.  20).  But  if  I  do 
that  which  I  would  not,  the  doer  is  no  longer  I  [the  ego], 
but  is  the  sin  dwelling  in  me.  That  is  to  say — The  voice 
within  me  whicli  would  not,  which  protests  against  the 
doing — is  at  least  a  part  of  the  ego,  the  real  I ;  and  in  so  far, 
exempts  the  ego  from  the  responsibility  of  the  doing,  and 
consequently  thus  far,  throws  the  responsibility  upon  the 
indwelling  sin. — (v.  21)  I  find  then  a  law  (in  the  sense  of 
a  fixed  usage,  a  constant  result),  that  when  I  would  do 
good,  the  bad  is  ever  present  to  me. 

If  any  reader  would  call  the  Apostle  to  account  on  the 
charge  of  loose  metaphysics,  he  would  probably  reply: — I  am 
not  treating  this  subject  metaphysically  just  now.  I  speak 
to  the  common  mind,  from  the  testimony  of  universal  hu- 
man experience.  There  is  a  certain  sin-power  in  human 
flesh,  which  every  observing  man  knows  of  full  well ;  and 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  VII.  81 

he  also  knows  that  his  reason  and  conscience — the  higher, 
nobler  elements  of  his  moral  nature — give  battle  to  this 
lower-seated  sin-power — yet  only  to  be  worsted  in  every 
conflict,  till  some  other  help  comes  to  his  aid  besides  mere 
law. 

As  to  Panl's  use  of  the  word  "would,"  (Gr.  thelo) 
which  occurs  seven  times  in  the  passage  (15-21)  I  doubt  if 
it  can  be  represented  in  English  better  than  by  "  W07ild." 
It  is  not  zoill  in  the  strong  sense  of  purpose,  determina- 
tion ;  but  rather  indicates  desire,  and  here  not  tlie  lower 
appetites  but  the  higher  impulses — those  of  our  moral 
nature — the  voice  of  conscience  and  of  reason. 

22.  For  I  delight  in  the  law  of  God  after  the  inward 
man: 

23.  But  I  see  another  law  in  my  members,  warring 
against  the  law  of  my  mind,  and  bringing  me  into  cap- 
tivity to  the  law  of  sin  which  is  in  my  members. 

In  these  verses  the  dual  personality  stands  out  with 
even  greater  distinctness,  (if  possible),  and  noticeably, 
these  dual  persons  appear  under  new  names.  The  better 
part  of  man's  moral  nature  is  here  "  the  inner  man  ;  "  also 
"the  law  of  my  mind"  [nous,  the  "mens  of  Ovid  as 
quoted  above."]  Over  against  this  power  is  that  of  the 
lower  nature,  called  "  another  law  in  my  members  ; "  also 
"  the  law  of  sin  which  is  in  my  members  ; "  and  further  on, 
"  the  body  of  this  death."— Here  Paul  says  (v.  22.)—"  I 
am  pleased  Avith  the  law  of  God  " — that  is  the  I  [ego  ] 
which  represents  the  inner  man,  so  called  because  the  outer 
man  is  of  the  flesh,  visible  to  the  eye  ;  while  the  reason  and 
conscience  are  of  man's  inner  invisible  being.  The  voice 
of  the  inner  man  is  in  harmony  with  the  law  of  God,  approv- 
ing the  right. — But  I  see  another  law  in  my  members  [my 
flesh]  which  always  puts  itself  in  hostile  array,  doing  bat- 
tle against  the  law  of  my  reason  and  conscience,  [nous] 
and  always  enslaving  me  (making  me  a  captive  of  war) 
under  the  law  of  sin  which  is  in  my  members  (flesh). — This 
is  the  same  conflict,  put  in  military  terms — the  same  irre- 
pressible antagonism  between  the  higher  and  the  lower  ele- 
ments of  man's  being.  Noticeably  here,  as  throughout 
this  chapter,  the  lower  is  always  the  conqueror ;  the  higher 
is  beaten  in  every  conflict. 


83  ROMANS.-CHAP.  VII. 

24:.  O  wretelied  man  tliat  I  am !  who  shall  deliver  me 
from  the  body  of  this  death  ? 

25.  I  thank  God  throngh  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  So 
then  with  the  mind  I  myself  serve  the  law  of  God ;  but 
with  the  flesh  the  law  of  sin. 

Suddenly  Paul's  description  culminates  in  one  out- 
burst of  agony — "  0  wretched  man  I  !  Who  shall  deliver 
me — who  can  ever  deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death  ! 
— from  tliis  power  of  the  flesh,  this  all-conquering  sin- 
power  of  my  lower  nature  ;  which  always  enslaves — against 
which,  so  long  as  only  law  stands  for  my  help,  I  struggle 
forever  in  vain  ! 

Here  light  breaks  gloriously  upon  his  darkness  ;  help 
drops  down  from  on  high,  and  his  out-poured  thanksgiv- 
ings bear  witness  to  his  inexpressible  relief  and  triumph. — 
"  Thanks  be  to  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  !  The 
great  Deliverer  of  human  souls  from  their  sin-bondage  has 
come  at  last ! 

Then  as  the  conclusion  of  this  chapter's  discussion, — 
"I  myself  with  the  mind  [the  nous]  serve  the  law  of  God — 
endorsing,  approving  it ; — but  with  the  flesh  [the  sarx], 
the  law  of  sin — the  flesh  always  carrying  the  day  against 
the  mind  till  God's  help  in  Christ  appears. 

We  must  now  give  attention  brielly  to  the  long  mooted 
question — whether  in  this  passage  (v.  14-25.)  Paul  is  speak- 
ing of  Christian  experience,  and  particularly  of  his  own 
then  present  experience  as  a  christian. 

This  question  must  certainly  be  answered  in  the  nega- 
tive; for  the  four  following  reasons — each  strong  in  itself; 
all  combined  sufficient  to  annihilate  that  mischievous  in- 
terpretation forever. 

I.  The  ivliole  scope  of  the  context  forbids  its  reference 
to  Christicai  experience. 

The  thought  of  the  context  should  be  traced  even  from 
G:  14  :  ''Sin  shall  not  have  dominion  over  you  ;  for  ye 
are  not  under  law,  but  under  grace  ;" — not  "  under  law  " 
specially  as  a  sanctifi/ing  power,  because  it  is  utterly  inade- 
quate for  this  purpose. — Then  in  7:  4  and  onward  we  have 
the  same  argument  still  in  hand — the  law  good,  excellent 
in  itself,  but  rather  provoking  more  sin  than  itself  sub- 
duing sin  and  producing  holy  obedience  ; — and  then  to 
make  his  argument  demonstrably  clear,  he  outlines  in  this 


nOMANS.— CHAP.  VII.  83 

passage  the  life  and  death-struggle  between  the  higher  and 
the  lower  nature  in  the  unrenewed  man,  with  no  other 
help  toward  virtue  except  the  law,  Man's  better  elements 
(reason  and  conscience)  approve  the  law  of  God  and  have  its 
help  in  their  moral  efforts  ;  but  even  so,  are  entirely  un- 
availing. Throughout  it  is  vital  to  Paul's  entire  argument 
that  this  struggle  be  that  of  the  unregenerate  man,  with  the 
law  only  and  no  gospel  present  for  the  help  of  his  better 
nature ;  but  this  help  from  the  law,  all  too  weak  for  the 
victory. 

2.  The  conflict  so  vividly  portrayed  throughout  this  pas- 
sage is  beyond  all  question  between  the  flesh  and  the  7iiind 
(the  "sarx''  and  the  "nous") — i.e.  the  lower  appetites 
and  passions,  having  their  seat  mainly  in  the  flesh  on  the 
one  hand  ;  and  on  the  other,  tlie  higher  elements — those 
of  ••'  the  inner  man  ; "  his  nobler  qualities  as  a  moral  being. 
The  element  always  present  in  all  Christian  experience  viz. 
the  Spirit  of  God,  is  not  once  alluded  to — is  not  even  thought 
of  throughout  this  entire  passage.  This  fact  alone  is  per- 
fectly decisive  against  the  theory  that  this  is  christian  ex- 
perience. For  there  never  can  be  any  christian  experience 
without  the  presence  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  The  '"'pneuma/' 
— the  '•'  Holy  Ghost  " — is  a  present  element,  a  living  power, 
in  all  Christian  experience.  The  christian  life  cannot  even 
begin  without  it  ;  can  never  be  carried  forward,  when  once 
begun,  without  it.  So  Paul  teaches  in  this  very  connection  : 
"Ye  are  not  in  the  flesh  but  in  the  Spirit,  if  so  be  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  dwell  in  you.  *  Now  if  any  man  have  not  the 
Spirit  of  Christ,"  [i.e.  dwelling  within  him]  "  he  is  none  of 
liis."  Or  read  Paul  (as  in  Gal.  5:  lG-24)  and  mark  how  in 
all  christian  experience  the  conflict  is  not  (as  here)  between 
•'flesh"  and  '"mind,"  but  between  the  flesh  and  the  Spirit: 
'•'  Walk  in  the  Spirit,  and  ye  shall  not  fulfil  the  lusts  of  the 
flesh.  For  the  flesh  lusteth  against  the  Spirit  and  the  Spirit 
against  the  flesh  ;  cDid  these  are  coiitrarg  tlie  one  to  the 
other;  " — between  these  all  the  antagonism  of  really  chris- 
tian experience  lies. — The  utter  absence  of  the  Spirit  in 
this  experience  drawn  out  in  Eomans  7.  ought  to  have 
shown  it  forever  impossible  that  this  can  be  the  regenerate, 
christian  man — with  no  Holy  Ghost  in  his  heart  and  none  of 
his  power  in  the  soul. — This  is  all  unknown  to  the  scriptures 
— is  an  utter  impossibility! — When  in  chap.  8.  Paul  comes  to 
expand  his  views  of  the  glorious  victory  for  which  he  thanks 


81  ROMANS.— CHAP.  VII. 

God  in  the  close  of  this  chapter,  he  shows  how  thoroughly 
he  recognizes  this  victory  as  coming  through  the  presence 
of  the  Spirit  and  how  certainly  he  ascribes  it  to  the  law  of 
the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  that  he  is  made  free  from 
the  law  of  sin  and  death. 

3.  The  present  tense  here  (as  said  above)  is  not  historical 
but  is  rhetorical.  It  does  not  delineate  his  own  personal 
experience  at  that  time,  nor  indeed  specially  at  any  time, 
but  it  makes  himself  a  supposed  case — a  case  for  the  illus- 
tration of  a  great  law  of  sinning  human  nature.  Here  I 
call  the  reader's  attention  to  the  fact  that  Paul  uses  the 
Greek  tongue  with  great  accuracy.  In  quite  a  number  of 
passages  he  does  refer  to  his  experience  in  his  pre-christian 
life — before  his  conversion  ;  but  never  in  the  present  tense 
—never  in  any  other  than  the  proper  historic  past.  See 
Acts  22:  3,  4,  19,  20:  "  I  was  brought  up  in  this  city  ;  was 
taught  in  the  law  of  the  fathers  ;  was  zealous  toward  God, 
I  persecuted  this  sect ;  and  imprisoned  and  beat  them  etc. 
— all  with  perfect  accuracy,  in  the  really  past,  historic 
tense.  So  Acts  26:  9-15;  "  I  verily  thought  with  myself 
that  I  ought."  See  also  Phil.  3:  4-7  ;  "I  was  circumcised 
the  eighth  day  ; "  "  what  things  were  gain  to  me,  I  counted 
loss  for  Christ."  Thus  Paul  knew  how  to  speak  of  his 
ungodly  experience,  of  the  life  he  lived  before  his  conver- 
sion, using  sensibly  the  right  historic  tenses. — From  this 
we  must  certainly  infer  that  this  passage  (v.  14-25),  run- 
ning regularly  in  the  present  tense,  was  not,  could  not  be, 
his  experience  before  his  conversion.  That  is,  he  is  not 
reciting  it  as  siich.  With  equal  certainty  it  was  not  his 
experience  in  any  part  of  his  christian  life — because  as 
here  put  there  is  no  Holy  Ghost  in  it,  and  no  victory  over 
sin  in  a  single  instance — nothing  but  being  overcome  in 
every  struggle.  This  present  tense  is  therefore  nothing  but 
a  supposed  case  of  a  soul — without  the  gospel  and  without 
the  Holy  Ghost. 

4.  Finally  ;  throughout  this  delineation  (v.  14-25)  sin 
absolutely  triumphs  in  every  conflict.  It  conquers  every- 
time.  Is  this  a  christian  experience  ?  Alas  if  it  be,  for  a 
sinner's  experience  can  be  no  worse  !  There  is  no  salvation 
in  this  sort  of  christian  experience  ;  no  victory  over  sin 
whatever.  Whatever  grace  there  may  be  here  is  power- 
less ;  indeed  (as  ali'eady  said)  so  powerless  that  the  passage 
contains  not  the  slightest  allusion  to  any  grace  whatever  in 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  VII.  85 

the  struggle.  But,  be  if  carefully  noted,  Paul  has  already 
spoken  of  the  really  christian  experience  on  this  point ; 
viz,  in  6:  14-22.  "For  sin  shall  not  have  dominion  over 
you"  (how  utterly  unlike  this  conflict !)  "for  ye  are  not 
under  law  but  under  grace." — "  But  now,  being  made  free 
from  sin,  ye  have  your  fruit  unto  holiness,  and  the  end, 
everlasting  life."  This  is  a  totally  different  experience 
from  what  we  have  in  Eom.  7.  So  also  as  we  shall  see 
throughout  Rom.  8.  The  real  christian  experience  is  there 
— the  Spirit  of  God ;  the  life-giving,  the  sin-conquering 
power. 

Therefore,  let  the  notion  that  Rom.  7,  gives  christian 
experience  be  forever  exploded.  It  has  been  a  terrible 
delusion,  encouraging  multitudes  of  unconverted  men  in 
the  belief  that  because  their  own  experience  was  quite  well 
drawn  out  there,  they  at  least  belonged  to  one  class  of 
Paul's  christian  people — as  good  as  Paul  himself  during  at 
least  one  stage  of  his  christian  life  ! 


-v5o- 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

This  chapter  throughout  stands  over  against  chap.  7, 
in  closest  antithetic  relations ;  that  giving  us  the  ineffi- 
ciency of  the  law  to  save  human  souls  from  sin  and  conse- 
quently from  condemnation  :  this,  on  the  other  side,  giv- 
ing us  the  perfect  efficiency  of  the  gospel  scheme,  especially 
through  its  glorious  power  of  the  Si^ij-it.  Here  Paul  cata- 
logues the  blessings  which  come  to  believers  in  Christ 
through  the  Holy  Ghost.  We  shall  find  it  a  wonderfully 
rich  group  of  blessings  : — No  more  condemnation  upon 
those  in  Christ,  walking  no  longer  after  the  flesh  but  after 
the  Spirit  (v.  1,  2),  God  having  achieved  through  his  Son 
what  the  law  never  could  do  (v.  3,  4)  ;  changing  the 
whole  heart  and  life  from  loving  and  serving  flesh  to  the 
spiritual  mind  which  is  life  and  peace  (v.  5-8) ;  results 
wrought  by  the  indwelling  presence  of  Christ  and  his 
Spirit  (v.  9-11)  ;  which  should  bind  christians  morally  to 
live  no  more  after  the  flesh  but  to  follow  the  Spirit  as  sons 
of  God,  and  so  heirs  of  glory  (v.  12-17)  ;  a  glory  great 


86  ROMANS.— CHAP.  VIII. 

beyond  compare  (v.  18) — toward  which  glory  the  whole  crea- 
tio"n  looks  with  longing  hope  (v.  19-25)  ;  the  Spirit  helping 
toward  hope  by  inspiring  our  prayers  (v.  26,  27)  ;  confi- 
dence in  God's  love  as  built  upon  his  eternal  purpose  (v. 
28-30)  ;  God  for  us  should  inspire  our  faith  and  hope  for 
every  blessing  (v.  31-31) ;  nothing  can  separate  us  from 
Christ's  love  (v.  35-39). 

1.  There  is  therefore  now  no  condemnation  to  them 
M'liich  are  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh, 
but  after  the  Spirit. 

2.  For  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus 
hath  made  me  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death. 

'•'No  condemnation" — for  be  it  carefully  observed, 
Paul  has  said  and  shown  that  being  justified  by  faith  we 
have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  (5  : 
1),  so  that  to  those  who  are  in  Christ  there  is  no  more 
condemnation  before  and  under  God's  law.  It  only  re- 
mained to  show  here  that  the  conscious  self-condemnation, 
resulting  from  present  sin,  has  ceased  in  the  case  of  those 
who  walk  no  longer  after  the  flesh  but  after  the  Spirit. 
They  are  free,  for  the  law  of  the  spirit  that  works  life  has 
lifted  them  out  from  the  bondage  of  slavery  under  the  law 
that  wrought  sin  and  death. — The  "law"  is  used  here  as 
above  (7  :  21,  23,  25),  in  the  sense  of  a  well  defined  jsozwer, 
acting  efficiently  and  constantly — the  law  of  sin  to  produce 
sinning,  and  the  law  of  life  and  grace,  to  beget  holiness. 
In  V.  2.  therefore  Paul  teaches  that  the  Spirit  of  God  de- 
livers the  soul  from  the  power  of  sin  and  death. — The 
reader  should  note  the  full  assumption  here  that  the  state 
of  "no  condemnation"  presupposes  not  only  free  pardon 
— actual  justification  before  the  law — but  deliverance  from 
reigning  sin  also — the  real  saving  of  human  souls  from  its 
present  dominion.  This  great  fact  cannot  be  too  thor- 
oughly understood,  or  too  dee^jly  impressed. — In  v.  2.  the 
improved  text  has  "  thee  "  instead  of  "  me." 

These  verses  should  not  be  passed  without  special  atten- 
tion to  the  agency  ascribed  to  Christ  (as  well  as  to  that 
ascribed  to  the  Spirit) — the  blessing  being  limited  to  those 
who  are  in  Christ  Jesus. — In  v.  2.  the  true  relation  (to 
other  words)  of  the  clause — "  in  Christ  Jesus,"  should  be 
carefully  noted.     Our  auth.  version  will  naturally  (but  in- 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  VIII.  87 

correctly)  be  understood  to  connect  it  to  the  words  "  spirit 
of  life."  It  should  rather  qualify  "made  free" — thus: 
'''For  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  hath  made  thee — being 
in  Christ  Jesus — free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death. — Or 
the  two  verses  might  be  translated  thus  ; — "  There  is  no 
condemnation  to  those  in  Christ  Jesus.  For  in  Christ  Jesus 
the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  hath  made  thee  free  from  the 
law  of  sin  and  death. — Thus  v.  2  gives  a  reason  for  the  fact 
stated  in  v.  1.  Bothalike  speak  of  those  who  are  in  Christ 
Jesus. 

3.  For  what  the  law  could  not  do,  in  that  it  was  weak 
through,  the  flesh,  God  sending  liis  own  Son  in  the  like- 
ness of  sinful  flesh,  and  for  sin,  condemned  sin  in  the 
flesh : 

4.  That  the  righteousness  of  the  law  might  be  ful- 
filled in  us,  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the 
Spirit. 

It  happens  not  unfrequently  that  Paul's  specially  im- 
portant passages  are  specially  difficult  of  construction — 
a  fact  due  apparently  to  the  deep,  impetuous  emotions 
which  they  excited  in  his  mind.  These  verses  are  a  case 
in  point.  They  need  to  be  studied  very  carefully  and  with 
the  closest  attention  to  the  drift  and  demands  of  the  con- 
text in  order  to  obtain  any  well  grounded  satisfaction  as 
to  their  precise  significance. 

Manifestly  he  wishes  to  show  hoAV  it  comes  to  pass  that 
the  law  of  thq  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  has  made  thee  free  from 
the  law  of  sin.  We  know  this  to  be  his  object,  not  only 
by  the  previous  context  but  also  by  the  following — as  we 
shall  see. 

To  put  in  plainest  light  both  the  grammatical  construc- 
tion and  the  full  significance  of  v.  3,  we  may  paraphrase  thus; 
— For  as  to  that  result,  impossible  for  the  law  because  it 
was  weak  through  the  flesh,  God  having  sent  his  own  Son 
in  flesh  like  man's  flesh  of  sin  and /or  sin  {i.  e.  for  the  sake 
of  overcoming  sin)  has  condemned  sin  (sealing  its  death- 
warrant  and  triumphing  over  it)  in  the  incarnate  flesh  of 
his  Son  ; — (v.  4.)  to  the  end  that  the  righteous  demands  of 
the  law  might  be  fulfilled  in  and  by  us  (in  our  renewed 
life) — in  the  case  of  us  all  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh  but 
after  the  Spirit. 


88  ROMANS.— CHAP.  VIII. 

The  first  clause — "what  the  law  could  not  do" — is 
literally — the  thing  impossible  of  law — i.  e.  impossible  for 
law  to  do.  Some  critics  construct  it  wath  some  verb  un- 
derstood, having  the  sense,  effect,  accomplish.  But  the 
introduction  of  new  words  should  be  avoided  if  possible. 
Other  critics,  more  wisely,  take  it  for  a  nominative  inde- 
pendent, and  suppose  that  Paul  puts  what  he  had  to  say 
about  this  result,  impossible  to  mere  law,  into  the  next 
verb  "condemned " — this  verb  being  chosen  here  with 
some  reference  to  the  same  word  in  v.  1.  and  a  sort  of  play 
upon  that  "no  condemnation."  There  is  no  condemna- 
tion to  those  who  so  walk  (as  in  v.  1.)  because,  though  the 
law  could  not  break  that  awful  power  of  sin  in  the  flesh, 
yet  God,  by  sending  his  Son  to  become  incarnate,  has  per- 
fectly smitten  that  power,  condemned  it  so  utterly  that 
now  all  the  righteous  claims  of  moral  law  on.  human  souls 
may  be  amply  met  in  the  case  of  those  who  walk  after  the 
Spirit  and  not  after  the  flesh. 

That  victory  over  sin  is  impossible  to  mere  law  because 
the  power  of  sin  in  human  flesh  is  too  strong  for  it,  is  the 
great  doctrine  of  chap.  7.  On  the  other  hand  the  great 
doctrine  of  chap.  8.  is  that  what  law  could  not  do,  the 
Spirit  of  God  has  well  and  thoroughly  done — and  done  it 
in  connection  with  the  mission  of  God's  own  Son,  made 
incarnate  in  human  flesh. — Noticeably  Paul  does  not  say 
that  the  Son  was  sent  in  man's  sinful  flesh,  but  only  in  a 
flesh  which  resemhied  this  flesh  of  sin.  It  was  human  but 
not  sinful — human  in  all  points  but  the  sin. 

The  precise  sense  and  relation  of  the  words  "  and  for 
sin,"  before  "condemned"  are  points  of  some  critical  diffi- 
culty. Our  auth.  version  assumes  that  this  "  and  "  connects 
the 'verb  "condemned"  with  the  participle  "  sending  ;  " 
but  this  is  harsh.  I  have  chosen  to  connect  it  with  the 
word  "sin"  which  in  Paul's  Greek  stands  immediately 
before  it — thus  ;  Having  sent  his  Son  in  a  likeness  of  flesh 
of  sin  and  for  sin — i.  e.  he  sent  his  Son  both  under  the 
form  of  man's  sinful  flesh  and  for  the  sake  of  conquering 
this  sin. 

The  critics  would  readily  agree  to  read — "  condemned 
the  sin  which  is  in  human  flesh" — if  Paul  had  put  the  ar- 
ticle after  the  word  "  sin,"  giving  the  phrase  this  sense — 
the  sin  which  is  in  human  flesh  ; — but  he  did  not.  There- 
fore it  seems  better  to  connect  "  in  the  flesh  " — with  "  con- 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  VIII.  89 

dcraned,"  to  indicate  that  it  was  by  the  incarnation  of  the 
Son  that  tliis  victory  over  sin  vi^as  wrought. 

In  V.  4.,  "the  righteousness  of  the  kiw  "  must  certainly 
be  the  subjective,  ethical  righteousness  of  a  right  heart  and 
life.  This  is  the  proper  sense  of  Paul's  word  (dikaioma) 
in  such  a  connection  {e.  g.  in  Rom.  2  :  3G.) 

Paul's  choice  of  his  Greek  negative  before  "  walk  after 
the  flesh  "  is  significant — it  having  this  shade  of  thought 
— They  being  supposed  not  to  walk  after  etc, — i.  e.  on  con- 
dition that  they  walk  not  after  the  flesh  but  after  the  Spirit. 

Finally,  let  it  be  said  emphatically  that  the  current  of 
thought  throughout  this  passage  is  not  upon  justification 
by  faith  in  the  sense  of  pardon  for  sin  ;  nor  upon  any  sort 
of  "imputed  righteousness  "  ;  but  is  upon  the  deliverance 
of  human  souls  from  the  presence  and  dominion  of  sin  as  a 
reigning  power  in  their  flesh — their  depraved  nature — a 
deliverance  achieved  in  consequence  of  Christ's  incarnation 
in  human  flesh — and  specially  through  the  agencies  of  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

5.  For  tliey  tliat  are  after  the  flesh  do  mind  tlie 
things  of  the  flesh ;  but  thej  that  are  after  the  Spirit,  the 
things  of  the  Spirit. 

6.  For  to  be  carnally  minded  is  death  :  but  to  be 
spiritually  minded  is  life  and  peace. 

7.  Because  the  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  God : 
for  it  is  not  subject  to  the  law  of  God,  neither  indeed 
can  be. 

8.  So  then  they  that  are  in  the  flesh  cannot  please 
God. 

These  verses  have  one  object  and  one  only — viz.  to  show 
what  is  meant  by  walking  after  the  flesh  and  after  the  Spirit 
respectively  ;  how  they  are  squarely  opposed  to  each  other 
— the  former  against  God  and  unto  death  ;  and  the  latter, 
for  God,  after  God,  and  unto  life. 

They  who  live  according  to  (or  after)  flesh,  giving  mind 
and  heart,  thought  and  affection,  to  things  of  flesh,  care 
for  those  things  supremely  ;  give  to  them  their  hearts'  love, 
and  seek  their  happiness  therein. — Over  against  this, 
those  who  receive  the  Spirit  of  God  into  their  heart  love 
the  things  of  that  Spirit ;  seek  and  love  purity,  obedience, 
God's  Avorship  and  service — a  state  of  heart  and  course  of 


90  ROMANS.— CHAP.  VIII. 

life  totally  opposite  to  living  after  the  flesh. — Then  (in 
V.  G)  the  minding  of  the  flesh  is  death — in  its  tendencies 
and  in  its  certain  results  ;  while  the  minding  of  the  Spirit 
is  life  and  peace. — This  must  be  so  (v.  7)  because  the  mind- 
ing of  the  flesh  is  enmity  against  God — precisely  this  ;  it  is 
rebellion  against  his  authority  ;  it  is  hostile  to  God,  in 
every  element  and  feature  for  it  does  not  subject  itself  to 
the  law  of  God  and  never  can.  God's  law  demands  a  totally 
different  heart  and  life  in  the  strongest  contrast  with  this. 
Then  (v.  8)  they  who  are  in  the  flesh,  — living  in  it, 
choosing  to  follow  its  impulses  and  be  governed  by  its  be- 
hests— '"'cannot  please  God."  Nothing  can  be  more  de- 
monstrably certain  than  this.  There  is  nothing  in  this 
character  that  can  please  God.  God  would  have  his  moral 
creatures  hold  the  flesh  under  the  control  of  right  and 
reason.  Every  impulse  toward  sinful  indulgence  ;  all  that 
is  of  the  flesh  as  a  sin-power — He  would  have  them  with- 
stand utterly  and  supplant  it  by  the  force  of  a  stronger 
affection — the  love  of  God  and  the  spirit  of  obedience  to 
his  will. 

9.  But  ye  are  not  in  the  flesli,  but  in  the  Spirit,  if  so 
be  that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwell  in  you.  Now  if  any 
man  have  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  he  is  none  of  his. 

10.  And  if  Christ  he  in  you,  the  body  es  dead  because 
of  sin ;  but  the  Spirit  is  life  because  of  righteousness. 

11.  But  if  the  Spirit  of  liim  that  raised  up  Jesus  from 
the  dead  dwell  in  you,  he  that  raised  up  Christ  from  the 
dead  shall  also  quicken  your  mortal  bodies  by  bis  Sj)irit 
that  dwelleth  in  you. 

If  indeed  (as  is'  now  assumed)  the  Spirit  of  God  dwell 
in  you,  then  ye  are  not  in  the  flesh  but  in  the  Spirit.  If 
any  one  has  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ  dwelling  within  him, 
he  is  not  Christ's  disciple — belongs  not  to  Christ  at  all — a 
truth  of  immensely  vital  bearings. — If  the  question  be 
raised  here  whether  we  shall  take  the  words — '•'  the  Spirit  of 
Christ"  to  mean  the  Holy  Ghost  given  by  Christ,  or  the 
character  of  Christ,  in  the  sense  of  a  spirit — a  state  of  heart 
— like  Christ's,  the  former  view  must  be  the  true  one,  as  the 
context  shows. — Kemarkably  we  have  in  these  three  verses 
four  synonymous  titles  or  names  for  the  indwelUng  Holy 
Ghost,  viz.   '-  The  Spirit  of  God  "  ;  '•  the  Spirit  of  Christ"  ; 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  VIII.  91 

"Christ"  himself;  and  ''the  Spirit  of  Him  who  raised 
Christ  from  the  dead." — In  v.  10  the  death  of  the  body  is 
that  universal  mortality  which  comes  upon  the  race  by  rea- 
son of  sin  ; — over  against  which  the  divine  Spirit  gives  us 
the  resurrection-life  because  of  righteousness — i.  e.  because 
we  have  become  righteous.  The  same  energizing  Spirit 
which  raised  Christ  from  the  dead  will  also  raise  his  people 
from  their  graves  and  clothe  them  with  the  same  immor- 
tality. 

12.  Therefore,  bretliren,  we  are  debtors,  not  to  the 
flesh,  to  live  after  the  flesh. 

13.  For  if  ye  live  after  the  flesh,  ye  shall  die  :  but  if 
ye  through  the  Spirit  do  mortify  the  deeds  of  the  body, 
ye  shall  live. 

Therefore  we  are  under  no  sort  of  obligation  to  the  flesh 
to  live  after  its  low,  base  impulses.  For  it  has  no  righteous 
claim  upon  us  ;  it  pays  us  only  with  death  !  It  is  only  by 
resisting  unto  death  the  impulses  of  fleshly  lust  that  ye 
can  have  life.  But  doing  this  by  the  aid  of  the  Spirit  and 
according  to  its  leading,  ye  shall  live. — Thus  God  sets  before 
men  the  way  of  death  and  the  way  of  life,  and  devolves 
upon  every  man  the  responsibility  of  choice.  So  Paul  has 
put  the  case  also  in  Gal,  5  :  16-34. 

14.  For  as  many  as  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
they  are  the  sons  of  God. 

15.  For  ye  have  not  received  the  spirit  of  bondage 
again  to  fear ;  but  ye  have  received  the  Spirit  of  adop- 
tion, whereby  we  cry,  Abba,  Father. 

16.  The  Spirit  itself  beareth  witness  with  our  si)irit, 
that  we  are  the  children  of  God : 

17.  And  if  children,  then  heirs;  heirs  of  God,  and 
joint  heirs  with  Christ;  if  so  be  that  we  suffer  with  him, 
that  we  may  be  also  glorified  together. 

For  all  those  who  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God — those 
and  none  other,  and  all  these  without  exception — are  sons 
of  God.  Being  led  by  the  Spirit  makes  them  sons.  And 
the  Spirit  which  they  thus  receive  from  God  is  not  one  of 
bondage — this  negative  form  of  statement  being  chosen 
for  its  greater  strength.  The  son-spirit  is  not  at  all  a  spirit 
of  bondage  but  of  adoption,  of  filial  confidence  under  which 


92  ROMANS.— CHAP.  VIII. 

they  spontaneously  cry,  "Father,  Father."  The  Spirit  of 
God  himself  witnesses  conjointly  with  our  own  son-feeling 
that  we  are  children  of  God.  He  inspires  this  feeling ;  He 
makes  it  more  and  more  strong  in  our  heart.  It  is  no  small 
part  of  his  official  work  to  breathe  into  our  souls  this  child- 
confidence  and  prompt  those  outgoings  of  loving  trust 
which  voice  themselves  in  the  cry,  "  Father,  Father." — 
The  word  "  Abba  "  is  the  Aramean  (original  Hebrew)  word 
for  father,  coupled  here  with  the  Greek  word,  perhaps  to 
suggest  that  in  every  tongue  and  every  nation,  the  children 
of  God  seize  the  word  '•  father"  as  the  best  expression  of 
their  humble,  trustful,  loving  heart  toward  God. — "If 
children,  then  heirs  " — according  to  the  universal  law — in- 
heritance being  evermore  the  prerogative  of  sonship. — 
"  Fellow  heirs  with  Christ,"  inheriting  the  wealth  of  God 
even  as  he  does  and  because  we  are  in  him. — If  indeed  we 
suffer  with  him,  then  shall  we  surely  share  with  him  in 
his  final  glory — a  truth  often  assumed  or  expressed  by  our 
Lord  (Luke  12:  33,  and  22:  28-30.)  and  repeated  by  his 
apostles. 

18.  For  I  reckon  tliat  the  sufferings  of  tliis  present 
time  are  not  worthy  to  he  compared  with  the  glory  which 
shall  be  revealed  in  lis. 

"  For  I  reckon  " — this  is  my  reasoning  upon  the  case  : — 
since  we  have  this  joint  heirship  with  Christ  in  his  immor- 
tal blessedness,  I  must  infer  that  the  sufferings  of  this 
short  life  are  not  worthy  of  a  thought  in  the  presence  of 
that  glory  which  is  to  be  revealed  to  us.  In  the  prospect 
of  such  glory,  with  the  promise  of  it  full  in  our  view 
(so  Paul's  words  present  it),  all  we  can  possibly  suffer  for 
Christ  here  seems  infinitely  small  and  of  no  appreciable 
worth.  This  is  certainly  a  very  strong  logical  inference  from 
that  glorious  sonship  and  joint  heirship  with  Christ  of 
which  he  has  spoken. 

19.  For  the  earnest  expectation  of  the  creature  wait- 
eth  for  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God. 

20.  For  the  creature  was  made  subject  to  vanity,  not 
willingly,  but  by  reason  of  him  who  hath  subjected  the 
same  in  hope ; 

21.  Because  the  creature  itseK  also  shall  be  delivered 


ROMANS— CHAP.  VIII.  93 

from  the  bondage  of  corruption  into  the  glorious  liberty 
of  the  children  of  God. 

23.  For  we  know  that  the  whole  creation  groanetli 
and  travaileth  in  pain  together  until  now. 

23.  And  not  only  they^  but  ourselves  also,  which  have 
the  first  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  even  we  ourselves  groan 
within  ourselves,  waiting  for  the  adoption,  to  wit,  the 
redemption  of  our  body. 

This  passage  is  difficult  especially  because  the  sentiment 
is  new — not  elsewhere  brought  out  in  the  scriptures.  Critics 
have  differed  widely  as  to  its  precise  meaning. 

Its  true  meaning  must  be  found — (a.)  In  the  legitimate 
sense  of  the  central  word  "  creature,"  three  times  used, 
"and  the  whole  creation"  (v.  22.)  where  the  Greek  word 
is  still  the  same  as  in  the  three  other  cases. — (b.)  In  the 
things  said  of  this  "  creature,"  which  become  limitations 
and  definitions  of  its  meaning,  and  especially  the  antithesis 
which  distinguishes  between  ''the  creature"  and  "our- 
selves also  who  have  the  first  fruits  of  the  Spirit,"  (v.  23.) — 
(c.)  In  the  exigencies  of  the  context ;  here,  especially,  the 
object  and  purpose  of  this  allusion  to  the  creature  as 
groaning  and  travelling  together  in  pain,  waiting  for  the 
great  hour  of  redemption  for  God's  people. 

(a.)  The  Greek  word  for  creature*  means  primarily 
creation  as  an  act  of  God.  This  sense  is  excluded  here  by 
the  nature  of  the  case. — Secondarily,  the  thing  created 
considered  as  something  made — essentially  what  we  mean 
by  "all  nature,"  especially  all  material  things,  whether 
animate  or  inanimate. — Unless  the  limitations  given  in  the 
passage  forbid,  we  are  bound  to  take  the  word  in  this 
sense. 

(b.)  Under  the  head  of  explanatory  clauses  which  serve 
to  modify  and  limit  the  meaning,  we  have — (1.)  "  The  be- 
ing made  subject  to  vanity,"  without  its  own  consent,  yet 
temporarily,  and  in  hope  of  ultimate  relief.  "Vanity" 
must  be  a  state  of  duresse,  subjection  to  evil — words  which 
well  represent  the  state  of  our  world  since  the  fall  and 
because  of  it.  By  reason  of  that  fall,  this  world  became 
marred  and  shorn  of  its  paradisaical  beauty  and  perfection, 
subject  to  storm,  lightning,  tornado,  earthquake,  miasm, 

5  *  ;\;TiC7£(T, 


94  ROMANS.— CHAP.  VIII. 

pestilence,  casualty,  bitter  cold  and  scorching  heat — liabili- 
ties which  most  manifestly  adjust  it  to  a  state  of  sin,  suf- 
fering and  death.  Indeed  the  words  (v.  23.)  the  redemp- 
tion of  our  body" — show  plainly  that  the  mortality  of  our 
flesh  is  prominently  before  PauPs  mind.  This  all  came 
of  sin  ;  it  shall  all  pass  away  when  God's  children  shall 
emerge  into  their  glorious  '"liberty  " — exempt  forevermore 
from  this  bondage  of  corruption. — (2.)  We  have  the  fact 
that  from  this  state  of  duresse  and  bondage,  it  is  to  be 
delivered  when  the  children  of  God  attain  the  full  revela- 
tion of  that  glory  which  awaits  them.  Then  shall  the 
creation  itself — this  world — all  nature — be  emancipated 
from  its  bondage  to  vanity  and  corruption,  and  emerge  into 
a  state  corresponding  and  adapted  to  the  moral  purity  and 
glorious  liberty  of  God's  children. — (3)  As  if  all  nature 
were  sentient  and  conscious  of  this  thraldom  to  the  sin- 
ing  condition  of  the  moral  beings  placed  upon  it,  Paul 
represents  it  as  groaning  in  travail  pains  for  its  anticipated 
deliverance. — If  it  be  said  that  this  conception  of  nature  is 
a  thing  of  the  imagination,  it  may  be  admitted,  yet  with- 
out vitiating  its  propriety.  Why  may  not  all  nature  be 
thought  of  as  in  love  with  its  own  beauty  and  in  pain  for 
its  coerced  deformity  ; — as  therefore  in  sympathy  with 
God's  intelligent  children  in  their  longings  for  exemption 
from  frailty,  pain  and  wo,  and  in  their  aspirations  for  a 
paradise  unmarred  by  sin  ? 

The  two  points  made  especially  prominent  in  this  de- 
scription of  nature  ("  the  creature  ")  are — its  earnest  long- 
ing for  the  grand  consummation  of  blessedness  promised  to 
the  children  of  God  ;  and  its  travail  pains  under  its  en- 
forced subjection  to  its  present  condition  of  frailty  and 
vanity. 

(c.)  The  exigencies  of  the  context  are  obvious,  as  we 
may  see  in  the  logical  connection  of  v.  19  with  v.  18, — the 
case  of  "  the  creature  "  being  adduced  here  to  confirm  the 
certainty  of  that  unutterable  glory  Avhich  is  to  be  revealed 
for  God's  people.  So  grand  and  glorious  will  be  the  relief 
from  sin  and  frailt}^,  from  the  incidents  and  agencies  for 
pain  and  tears  and  wo,  which  peij;ain  to  this  evil  world, 
that  all  nature  is  longing  and  waiting  for  it — not  merely 
for  her  own  sake  (we  may  suppose)  but  in  sympathy  with 
God's  redeemed  people. 

A  few  words  more  as  to  the  various  interpretations 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  VIII.  95 

which   have   been  put  upon  this  word  "crcatui'e"  and 
"creation  "  in  this  passage. 

1.  It  cannot  possibly  mean  the  redeemed  of  our  world, 
because  in  v.  23,  "it"  (or  "  they  ")  are  contradistinguished 
from  "ourselves  who  have  the  first  fruits  of  the  Spirit." 

2.  It  cannot  possibly  mean  the  unredeemed  of  our  race, 
the  incorrigibly  wicked  ; — because  (a) ;  They  are  never 
called  "the  creature"  or  "the  creation;" — (b)  They 
would  have  been  called  "  the  world  : " — (c)  They  were  never 
"subjected  to  vanity"  unwillingly,  but  only  because  of 
their  persistent  will  ^w.^  choice  of  vanity" — sin. — (d)  To 
say  that  they  are  groaning  and  travelling  in  pain  waiting 
for  the  adoption  and  redemption  promised  to  God's  people, 
would  be  an  infinite  falsehood,  for  nothing  could  be  farther 
from  the  truth  of  the  case. 

3.  No  other  significance  remains  to  put  upon  these 
words — "creature,"  "creation" — except  this  material 
world,  animate  or  inanimate,  or  both.  The  objection  to 
including  the  animate  creation,  the  non-rational  animals 
of  our  globe,  is  that  we  have  no  evidence  of  their  immor- 
tality ;  and  the  presumption  seems  to  be  against  the  sup- 
position. That  they  should  sympathize  with  the  thraldom 
brought  upon  all  nature  by  reason  of  the  sin  of  the  race  is 
no  more  difficult  than  to  conceive  of  such  sympathy  in  the 
inanimate  creation.  I  judge  that  it  is  a  matter  of  no  par- 
ticular moment  whether  we  include  the  non-rational  ani- 
mals or  exclude  them.  The  inanimate  creation  is  unques- 
tionably in  the  apostle's  thought. 

Speculations  upon  the  possible  future  of  this  material 
globe  may  be  wisely  postponed  till  we  know  something 
more  than  is  yet  revealed. 

24.  For  we  are  saved  by  hope :  but  hope  that  is  seen 
is  not  hope:  for  what  a  man  seeth,  why  doth  he  jet 
hope  for? 

25.  But  if  we  hope  for  that  we  see  not,  then  do  w^e 
with  patience  w^ait  for  it. 

Paul  would  not  say  that  hope  is  a  Saviour  in  the  same 
sense  as  Christ  is  ;  but  only  that  hope  is  called  into  exer- 
cise by  the  discipline  of  earth  ripening  us  for  final  salvation. 
The  objects  of  our  christian  hope  are  yet  unseen.  If  they 
were  fully  seen,  hope  in  the  sense  of  faith  in  things  not 


96  ROMANS.— CHAP.  VIII. 

seen,  would  be  uncalled  for.  The  reader  will  notice  that 
'•'  hope  "  is  used  here  nearly  in  the  sense  of  faith.  It  is 
faith  combined  with  earnest  expectation.  This  waiting 
["  with  patience] "  is  the  same  word  and  the  same  thing  as 
in  V.  23 — "  waiting  for  the  adoption." 

26.  Likewise  the  Spirit  also  lielpetli  our  infirmities : 
for  we  know  not  what  we  should  ptay  for  as  we  ought : 
but  the  Spirit  itself  maketh  intercession  for  us  wdth 
groanings  which  cannot  be  uttered. 

27.  And  he  that  searcheth  the  hearts  knoweth  what 
is  the  mind  of  the  Spirit,  because  he  maketh  intercession 
for  the  saints  according  to  the  will  of  God. 

This  "  likewise  "  compares  the  help  given  us  by  the 
Spirit  to  the  inspirations  of  hope  brought  to  view  in  the 
two  previous  verses  ;  or  possibly  it  may  look  further  back 
in  the  chapter  to  other  agencies  of  the  Spirit. — '"'Helpeth 
our  infirmities  " — certainly  in  the  sense  of  helping  us  under 
our  infirmities  ;  giving  us  fresh  strength  because  we  are 
weak  and  to  enable  us  to  bear  burdens  too  great  for  our 
unaided  strength. — Especially  he  helps  us  in  prayer ;  first, 
to  apprehend  more  truly  what  we  need  under  present  exi- 
gencies ;  and  next,  to  pour  forth  our  longing  desires  with 
groanings  which  no  words  can  utter.  This  twofold  help 
is  clearly  indicated  here.  "  What  to  pray  for  as  we  ought " 
• — means  what  our  present  circumstances  call  for  and  what 
therefore  we  have  present  occasion  to  ask.  It  is  a  precious 
truth  that  in  our  ignorance  on  this  point,  the  Spirit  of  all 
light  comes  to  our  relief  with  suggestions  wiser  and  better 
adapted  to  our  case  than  our  unaided  wisdom  could  reach. 

Next,  this  interceding  for  us  is  best  explained,  not  as 
an  intercession  before  God — this  agency  being  elsewhere 
ascribed  to  our  great  Mediator  and  High  Priest — the  Son 
of  God  ;  but  as  an  inspiration  which  acts  upon  our  sensi- 
bilities and  calls  forth  intense  longings  of  desire.  That  is 
to  say,  the  sphere  of  his  action  is  not  before  the  throne  of 
God,  but  within  the  human  soul.  Our  conscious  experi- 
ence testifies  that  this  is  done  by  heightening  immensely 
oiir  sense  of  the  preciousness  of  the  blessings  we  need,  and 
also  by  fresh  and  clear  views  of  God's  waiting  readiness  to 
"give  us  exceedingly  above  all  we  can  ask  or  think." 

God  who  searches  all  hearts  knows  the  mind — i.  e.  the 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  VIII.  97 

prayerful,  longing  state  of  mind — produced  in  us  by  tlie 
Spirit,  because  his  spiritual  impulses  in  our  souls  (his  in- 
tercessions for  and  in  the  saints)  are  always  in  harmony 
with  God's  thought  [''according  to  God."]  The  Father 
will  always  comprehend  perfectly  the  prayer  which  his  own 
Spirit  begets  and  inspires,  for  it  never  can  be  any  thing 
else  or  other  than  in  and  with  his  will. 

The  great  truth  imbedded  in  these  verses  takes  us  into 
the  deep  experiences  of  true  prayer.  The  divine  Spirit 
helps  all  really  praying  souls,  both  in  the  line  of  knowing 
what  to  ask,  and  of  asking  for  larger  blessings,  with  in- 
tenser  longings  and  with  more  assured  faith. — With  the 
Spirit  of  God  so  freely  and  so  abundantly  promised — ener- 
gizing our  souls  unto  and  in  our  prayer  ;  suggesting  what 
we  shall  ask  for  ;  inspiring  desires  unutterable  and  faith 
unfaltering  ; — what  may  not  prayer  accomplish  ! 

Moreover,  let  it  be  noted  that  though  Paul  very  often 
speaks  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  dwelling  within  the  souls  of 
God's  people  as  in  a  temple,  yet  he  has  nowhere  else  ex- 
plained so  fully  what  his  sjoecial  agencies  are,  particularly 
in  the  matter  of  prayer  and  of  direct  communion  with 
God.  This  passage  therefore  has  preeminent  value  and 
should  have  a  large  place  in  our  conceptions  of  the  jDOsi- 
tive  agencies  of  the  Spirit  in  Christian  experience  and 
toward  the  Christian  life. 

28.  And  we  know  that  all  things  work  together  for 
good  to  them  that  love  God,  to  them  who  are  the  called 
according  to  his  purpose. 

29.  For  whom  he  did  foreknow,  he  also  did  predes- 
tinate to  he  conformed  to  the  image  of  his  Son,  that  he 
might  be  the  first  born  among  many  bretliren. 

30.  Moreover,  whom  he  did  joredestinate,  them  he 
also  called :  and  whom  he  called,  them  he  also  justified  : 
and  whom  he  justified,  them  he  also  glorified. 

"Working  together"  in  the  sense  of  coo]3erating,  com- 
bining their  influences  and  agencies  to  this  result. — "  We 
know,"  suggests  that  this  is  a  matter  of  universal  chris- 
tian experience  and  consciousness. — Remarkably  this  co- 
working  for  good  gathers  strength  from  both  the  preceding 
and  the  following  context ;  from  the  preceding,  for  with 
such  privileges  of  prevailing  prayer  in  the  Holy  Ghost, 


98  ROMANS.— CHAP.  VIII. 

how  can  anything  that  bears  upon  us  in  the  line  of  either 
God's  providence  or  his  grace,  fail  to  work  for  our  good  ? 
— From  the  following  context  also  ;  for  those  whom  God 
has  called  according  to  his  purpose,  he  has  surely  committed 
himself  to  carry  through  triumphantly  to  the  glorious  con- 
summation of  their  purity  and  bliss  in  heaven. — Foreknow- 
ing, foreordering,  calling,  justifying,  glorifying, — succeed 
each  other  in  their  natural  order  with  no  derangement,  no 
break,  no  failure  in  the  ultimate  result.  What  God  thus 
sets  his  heart  upon  accomplishing  will  never  fail  !  This  is 
a  sufficient  reason  why  all  things  must  combine  their  agen- 
cies unto  the  good  of  all  who  love  God,  being  his  called 
ones — called  with  most  distinct  purpose  to  bring  forth 
their  final  glorification. 

Noticeably,  the  people  upon  whom  all  things  shall  com- 
bine for  their  good  are  described  here,  not  primarily  as 
"the  called  ones,"  but  by  a  descriptive  trait  of  much  safer 
application — viz.  "  them  that  love  God." — Who  his  "  called 
ones  "  are,  God  himself  would  know  perfectly  ;  but  men 
might  mistake  if  that  Avere  the  only  criterion.  But  loving 
God  falls  within  the  pale  of  personal  experience.  * '  Them 
that  love  God "  have  the  witness  of  it  deep  in  their  own 
heart — certainly  so  if  this  love  has  become  a  positive  ele- 
ment in  their  character,  and  if  it  moves  them  perpetually  to 
"  do  his  commandments."  "  He  that  keepeth  my  command- 
ments, he  it  is  that  loveth  me." 

"Predestinated" — to  what? — Not,  to  be  borne  from 
earth  to  heaven,  primarily,  merely,  or  chiefly — as  some 
seem  to  suppose  ; — but  to  be  transformed  morallg  into  the 
image  of  Christ,  the  Son  ;  to  be  saved  from  sin  and  made 
like  Christ  in  spirit  and  life — a  fact  that  should  never  be 
overlooked.  Hence  the  proof  of  one's  own  personal  elec- 
tion must  always  lie  in  this  conformity  of  heart  and  life  to 
the  imago  of  Christ,  and  Avill  be  in  measure  as  this  con- 
formity ;  no  more,  no  less. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  when  Paul  had  occasion  to 
say  that  Jesus  would  have  many  brethren  like  himself,  even 
a  multitude  of  redeemed  souls,  morally  washed  from  their 
pollutions  and  wrought  into  his  own  pure  moral  image,  he 
should  say  it  in  this  particular  way  : — That  he  might  be 
the  first-born  among  many  brethren  ; " — which  puts  Christ 
wholly  in  the  foreground  ;  makes  emphatic  the  fact  of  his 
infinite  supremacy  ;  and  pertinently  throws  his  people  be- 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  VIII.  99 

hind  him  as  filling  the  subordinate  place  of  "  brethren  " 
under  their  Great  Chief. 

Perhaps  a  word  is  due  upon  the  point  very  distinctly 
assumed  here — viz.  that  foreknowledge  comes  in  the  order 
of  nature  before  '*  predestination."  The  order  of  the  five 
successive  steps — "  foreknow  ;  "  ''predestine  ;  "  "  call  ; " 
'•■justify  ;  "  "glorify  " — is  jilainly  not  accidental  but  of  de- 
sign;— is  not  a  chance  arrangement,  but  a  well  considered 
method,  following  throughout  an  order  of  nature.  It  is 
therefore  legitimate  to  infer  that  foreknowledge  is  here  be- 
fore predestination,  because  it  belongs  here  in  the  order  of 
God's  thought  and  act. — Noticeably  Peter  has  the  same 
doctrine  ; — -"elect  according  to  the  foreknowledge  of  God 
the  Father"  (1  Peter  1:2). 

On  this  subject  I  can  only  take  time  to  suggest  briefly 
the  following  points  : 

1.  This  order  of  nature  in  the  divine  mind  provides  a 
sjjlicre  for  human  freedom  ;  i.e.  for  the  really  free  agency 
of  beings  created  to  be  morally  free  and  therefore  legiti- 
mately responsible  for  their  free  moral  activities. 

2.  This  is  not  equivalent  to  saying  that  personal  election 
turns  upon  God's  foreseeing  what  free  moral  agents  would 
do  ivithout  and  apart  from  his  own  spiritual  influence  ;  but, 

3.  It  may  supposably  open  the  way  for  election  to  turn 
upon  what  free  moral  agents  are  foreseen  to  do  under  God's 
influence. 

4.  As  to  the  reprobate,  the  scriptures  are  entirely  defin- 
ite and  emphatic  in  the  doctrine  that  reprobation  assumes 
them  to  have  been  tried  morally  with  prollered  trvith, 
promise,  mercy — but  to  have  been  found  wanting  and 
therefore  rejected,  disapproved,  shut  off  from  salvation  ; 
"  given  over  to  a  reprobate  mind  because  they  did  not  like 
to  retain  God  in  their  knowledge  "  (Rom.  1:  28). 

Of  course  this  reasoning  assumes  that  what  occurs  here 
in  time  interprets  to  us  what  was  God's  thought  and  plan 
in  the  past  eternity,  and  what  was  the  ultimate  ground  and 
reason  for  it. 

31.  "What  shall  we  then  say  to  these  things  ?  If  God 
he  for  us,  who  ean  he  against  us  ? 

32.  He  that  spared  not  his  own  Son,  but  delivered 
him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  he  not  with  him  also  freely 
give  us  all  things  ? 


100  ROMANS.— CHAP.  VIII. 

That  God  is  for  us,  we  may  surely  assume  most  abso- 
lutely. His  purpose  to  call,  justify,  glorify,  assumes  and 
implies  this  beyond  possible  question. — Then  who  can  be 
against  us  ?  Who  can  withstand  God  and  thwart  his 
purpose  ? 

Then  follows  this  remarkable  inference  : — God  did  not 
spare  his  own  Son — the  word  "  own"  emphatic  ; — the  very 
Son  He  so  loved  : — but  delivered  him  up  to  torture  and 
death  for  us  all.  Now  then,  how  is  it  possible  that  he  can 
withhold  anything  we  really  need  ?  How  can  he  fail  to 
give  ns  most  freely  all  things  else  ?  That  loliicli  costs  he 
has  given  already.  That  which  costs  comparatively  noth- 
ing remains  to  be  given.  Will  not  the  great  love  which 
so  cheerfully  met  the  cost  of  agony  and  shame  involved  in 
the  gift  of  his  Son  avail  to  the  giving  of  all  the  lesser — the 
not  costly  gifts,  yet  required  for  our  salvation  ? 

33.  Who  sliall  lay  any  thing  to  the  charge  of  God's 
elect  ?     It  is  God  that  jiistilietli. 

34.  Who  is  he  that  condemnetli  ?  It  is  Christ  that 
died,  yea  rather,  that  is  risen  again,  wdio  is  even  at  the 
right  hand  of  God,  who  also  maketli  intercession  for  us. 

Who  can  bring  an  indictment  against  God's  elect  to 
work  a  forfeiture  of  their  title  to  life  eternal  ?  If  their 
own  God  justities  them,  who  shall  or  can  condemn  ? — Paul's 
well  chosen  words  here  are  intensely  strong  and  bring  out 
the  personality  of  God  with  remarkable  force  : — God  is  the 
justifying  One  :  Who  is  the  condemning  One  ?  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  dying  One  ;  or  rather  the  Risen  One,  who  is  at 
God's  right  hand  and  who  also  makes  intercession  for  us — is 
committed  therefore,  to  the  extent  of  all  his  infinite  re- 
sources to  stand  for  his  people  before  the  throne  of  the 
Father.     What  more  or  better  can  we  desire  ? 

35.  Who  shall  separate  ns  from  the  love  of  Christ  ? 
shall  tribulation,  or  distress,  or  persecution,  or  famine, 
or  nakedness,  or  peril,  or  sword  ? 

3G.  As  it  is  written.  For  thy  sake  we  are  killed  all 
the  day  long ;  we  are  accounted  as  sheep  for  the  slaugh- 
ter. 

37.  N^ay,  in  all  these  things  we  are  more  than  con- 
querors through  him  that  loved  us. 

38.  For  I  am  persuaded,  that  neither  death,  nor  life, 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  VIII.  101 

nor  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor   tilings 
present,  nor  things  to  come. 

39.  Nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other  creatnre, 
shall  be  able  to  separate  ns  from  the  love  of  God  which 
is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord. 

Here  *'tlie  love  of  Christ"  is  not  our  love  to  him  but 
his  love  to  and  for  us.  The  drift  of  the  context  requires 
this  construction,  since  it  ti'eats  throughout  of  the  great 
love  of  God  and  of  his  Son  toward  his  people. 

The  triumphant,  extatic  conclusion  to  which  this  whole 
argument  has  brought  the  great  soul  of  the  apostle,  is  that 
nothing  can  separate  us  from  this  great  love.  Expanding 
this  thought  for  the  greater  emphasis  and  giving  his  mind 
scope  and  range  through  all  the  fields  of  possibility,  he 
makes  really  two  distinct  spheres  : — the  first,  of  things  to 
be  encountered  in  the  present  world,  within  the  average 
life  of  the  Christian  men  of  that  age;  tribulations,  dis- 
tresses, persecution,  famine,  peril,  sword  : — Shall  any  of 
these  things  separate  us  from  Christ's  love  ?  Nay,  verily  ; 
our  conflicts  with  these  enemies,  our  endurance  even  unto 
death  under  these  trials  and  pains  will  only  endear  us  the 
more  to  our  Saviour. — Then  rising  to  the  higher  sphere  of 
supposable  possible  or  actual  powers,  of  hostile  bearing  to- 
ward us,  he  declares — ''  I  am  persuaded  (ye  may  say — how 
can  he  know  ?)  but  he  would  answer  I  am  at  least  most 
fully  fer&uaded  that  nothing  in  heaven  above  or  in  hell 
beneath — no  unknown  power  springing  up  in  the  dark 
unexplored  realms  of  spiritual  being — shall  ever  be  able  to 
separate  us  from  the  love  of  God  which  reveals  itself  in 
Christ  Jesus  our  Lord. 

Under  this  full,  this  rich  persuasion,  his  mind  subsides 
into  repose,  filled,  we  may  assume,  with  profoundest  adora- 
tion and  most  grateful  praise. 


-^m- 


CH  AFTER    IX. 

The  first  five  verses  of  this  chapter  may  best  be  consid- 
ered by  themselves  before  we  open  the  broad  questions  that 


102  ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX. 

bear  upon  the  general  scope  and  purpose  of  the  rest  of  the 
chapter.  I  propose  this  method,  not  to  ignore  the  bearing 
of  these  five  verses  upon  the  general  theme  of  the  chapter, 
but  specially  because  here  are  two  passages,  (viz.  v.  3  and 
V.  5)  which  call  for  somewhat  elaborate  discussion.  This 
may  best  be  disposed  of  at  the  outset. 

1.  I  say  the  tnitli  in  Christ,  I  lie  not,  my  conscience 
also  bearing  me  witness  in  the  Holy  Ghost ; 

2.  That  I  have  great  heaviness  and  continual  sorrow 
in  my  heart. 

3.  For  I  could  wish  that  myself  were  accursed  from 
Christ  for  my  brethren,  my  kinsmen  according  to  the 
flesh : 

Very  noticeable  here  are  the  strength  and  solemnity  of 
this  asseveration  of  his  great  sorrow  over  the  case  of  his 
fellow  countrymen.  '•  Truth  I  speak  in  Christ ;  I  do  not 
lie  ;  my  conscience  bears  concurrent  witness  with  me  in 
the  Holy  Ghost." — The  v/ords,  ''in  Christ" — some  take  to 
be  a  form  of  sacred  oath,  swearing  by  the  name  of  Christ  ; 
but  this  view  should  be  peremptorily  rejected  as  being 
entirely  Avithout  support  in  usage,  and  vicious  in  principle. 
In  usage,  "  in  Christ"  means  in  my  character  as  a  christian 
— "in  Christ"  signifying  the  sphere  of  my  activities  as  one 
acting  in  Christ,  living  for  him  and  in  him.  So  living, 
I  say  this  in  all  truthfulness. — Cases  of  analogous  usage 
may  be  seen  in  Eph.  4:  17 — 1  Thess.  4:  1  and  2  Cor.  4:  17 
and  12:  19. — Appeals  to  the  Supreme  Being  by  using  any 
of  his  names  to  confirm  the  truth  of  statements  cannot  be 
too  severely  rebuked.  Let  us  not  bring  in  Paul  guilty  of 
profane  swearing  ! 

The  special  reasons  for  this  most  emphatic  affirmation 
of  his  veracity,  we  must  notice  in  the  sequel. 

I  now  invite  the  reader's  particular  attention  to  the  first 
clause  of  v.  3 — ''  I  could  wish  that  myself  were  accursed 
from  Christ  for  my  brethren." 

Critics  and  commentators  have  been  remarkably  unani- 
mous in  sustaining  this  construction,  yet  in  my  judgment 
without  good  reason  and  against  some  fundamental  laws  of 
just  interpretation. 

To  simplify  my  presentation   of  my  views,  I  put  the 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX.  103 

issue  thus  ; — We  are  to  choose  between  (a)  the  authorized 
version  [the  A.  V.]  ;  and  (b)  That  which  puts  the  clause  in 
question  into  a  parenthesis  thus  : — "I  have  sorrow  in  my 
heart  {for  I  myself  was  [once]  wishing  to  be  accursed  from 
Christ)  for  my  brethren  "  etc.  In  this  construction  his  great 
sorrow  is  for  his  brethren  ;  and  the  intervening  words  in 
parenthesis  assign  a  special  reason  for  feeling  this  keen 
sorrow,  viz.  because  I  know  but  too  well  how  they  feel 
having  been  in  the  same  state  myself. 

A  few  preliminary  points  should  be  briefly  noted  : — 

(a).  Paul  did  not  divide  this  letter  into  chapters,  and 
therefore  does  not  forbid  our  connecting  this  thought — 
''  being  anathema  from  Christ,"  with  the  being  "separated 
from  Christ"  (as  in  8:  35-39). 

(b).  Paul  left  no  marks  of  parenthesis  anywhere — yet 
we  are  often  obliged  to  put  them  in  because  his  obvious 
meaning  requires  it.  Indeed  he  gave  no  punctuation  at 
all —  e.g.  no  period  at  the  close  of  v.  2. 

(c).  The  textual  variations  affect  only  the  order  of  some 
of  the  words,  and  not  the  sense  or  construction  at  all. 

(d).  The  Greek  construction  of  the  clause — "  that  myself 
were  accursed" — is  that  of  the  accusative  before  the  infini- 
tive— in  English  thus — could  wish  myself  to  le  accursed.,  etc. 
The  precise  form  of  this  Greek  sentence  will  be  a  matter  of 
some  importance  in  the  sequel,  and  is  therefore  stated  here. 

(e).  Next,  let  it  be  noted  that  parenthetic  clauses  are  by 
no  means  uncommon  in  Paul — neither  strange  to  his  style 
or  to  his  habits  of  thought.  No  other  writer  of  the  Bible 
has  so  many  as  Paul.  In  his  passages  of  deep  emotion, 
they  are  very  common. — Moreover,  be  it  noted,  they  are 
naturally  introduced  as  here  by  "for"  ("gar"),  giving  a 
reason  for  what  he  has  just  said. — A  good  illustration  of 
this  point  is  Rom.  2:  11-14  where  four  successive  verses 
begin  with  "  for  "  (gar),  each  assigning  its  successive  reason, 
and  all  coming  in  to  fill  out  a  very  long  parenthesis. 

My  reasons  for  rejecting  the  authorized  version  and 
adopting  the  parenthetic  translation  will  naturally  fall  into 
three  classes  : 

I.  Grammatical : 

II.  Exegetical,  i.e.  from  history,  from  the  context,  from 
the  course  of  thought  and  nature  of  the  case  etc. 

III.  From  the  nature  of  the  sentiment  which  the  A.  V. 
involves. 


104  ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX. 

I.   Grmnmatical. 

1.  It  is  entirely  vital  to  any  just  interpretation  of  this 
passage  that  it  should  rest  first  of  all  upon  what  Paul  ac- 
tually said. — Now  according  to  the  normal  usage  of  his 
mood  and  tense  Paul  did  not  say — "I  could  wish;"  but 
he  said  ;  I  tvas  [once]  ivishing.  That  is,  his  word  is  in  the 
imperfect  tense  of  the  indicative  mood — a  tense  which  is 
habitually,  and  with  remarkably  fixed  usage  employed  to 
express  a  past  act  or  state,  continued  ; — I  was  wishing — •. 
was  once  in  the  past,  in  a  state  of  wishing. — Observe,  Paul 
is  quite  thoroughly  a  master  of  the  Greek  tongue  and  is  not 
wont  to  be  reckless  of  his  grammar.  The  Greek  language 
had  two  ways  of  saying  "  I  could  wish,"  viz.  (a)  A  special 
form  of  the  verb  (called  the  Ojjfative  mood) ;  and  (b)  The 
use  of  the  particle  '"an"  before  the  indicative  to  give  it 
the  sense  of  the  Optative.  Now  Paul  might  have  used 
either  of  these  methods  of  saying  "I  could  wish  ;"  but  in 
fact  he  did  not  use  either  of  them.  Therefore  the  A.  V. 
puts  into  his  mouth  what  he  did  not  say  and  misinterprets 
what  he  did  say. 

To  obviate  this- objection,  critics  have  sought  New  Tes- 
tament passages  in  which  the  imperfect  indicative  (which 
stands  here)  is  used  for  the  optative  without  "an."  Three 
such  are  adduced  as  authorities  ;  viz. — (a)  Acts  25  :  22 
which  the  Auth.  version  translates;  "I  would  also  hear 
the  man  myself  ; "  but  literally — I  myself  was  wishing  to 
hear  the  man  :  the  words  of  Agrippa  to  Festus  in  regard 
to  hearing  Paul. — Now  considering  the  antecedents  of  this 
Agrippa,  it  is  reasonably  certain  that  he  had  heard  of  Paul 
and  had  been  quite  desirous  to  hear  him  speak.  The 
standard  usage  of  his  word  (imperfect  indicative) — I  was 
wishing  to  hear  him — corresponds  with  the  reasonable  facts 
of  the  case  and  should  therefore  be  taken  as  his  meaning. 
'•'I  would  like  to  hear  him  now" — is  only  an  inference. 
Thus  this  case  is  no  usage  of  the  imperfect  for  the  optative 
without  "  an,"  and  affords  no  support  to  the  construction 
given  in  the  Auth.  version  of  our  passage. — (b.)  In  Phil. 
13  Paul  (as  translated  in  the  Auth.  version)  said  of  Ones- 
imus — "Whom  I  would  have  retained  with  me." — but 
precisely — "  Whom  I  was  wishing  to  retain  with  myself  " 
— for  the  good  reason  that  he  was  very  useful  to  me.  This 
latter  is  what  Paul  said  and  all  he  said — and  this  is  uo  op- 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX.  105 

tative  mood  at  all.  The  optative — I  would  like,  or  could 
have  wished,  to  retain  him,  is  only  an  inference  from  what 
he  really  said. — Thus  this  case  also  fails  to  give  authority 
for  the  optative  sense  of  our  imperfect  indicative  without 
"an." 

(c.)  Gal.  4  :  20.  is  the  third  passage,  adduced  as  au- 
thority.— This  reads  I  Jiave  been  wishing  (i.  e.  Avhile  writ- 
ing this  entire  epistle)  that  I  were  present  with  you,  in- 
stead of  saying  these  sharp  things  by  letter  ;  for  then,  less 
severe  words  coupled  with  mild  tones  and  possibly  tears, 
would  have  availed. 

Thus  these  cases  cited  to  justify  translating  Paul's  word 
here — "  I  could  wish,"  seem  all  to  come  under  the  normal 
usage  of  the  imperfect  indicative,  and  therefore  give  no 
support  to  the  translation  of  the  Auth.  version. — Let  it  be 
noted  moreover,  that  if  these  cases  were  clearly  optatives 
they  are  few  in  number  and  their  weight  should  be  meas- 
ured on  the  scale  against  the  normal  and  at  least  almost 
universal  usage  of  this  form  to  denote  past  continuous  ac- 
tion ;  I  teas  wishinf/* 

*  The  most  important  cases  of  usage  will  be — fir^t — of  the  same 
verb  which  we  have  here  [Eukomai,  pray],  and  next  of  the  very  an- 
alogous verb  (boulomai,  wisli).  It  cannot  be  amiss  therefore  to  ex- 
amine all  the  N.  T.  cases  in  which  either  of  these  verbs  is  found  in 
either  the  imperfect  indicative  or  the  optative  form.  These  are  the 
best  possible  authority  for  the  usage  of  these  words. 

1.  Eukomai  appears  in  the  same  imperfect  indicative  [as  in  Rom. 
9  :  3] — in  Acts  27  :  29.  "  The  sailors,  fearing  they  should  fall  into 
the  narrows,  having  cast  from  the  stern  four  anchors,  were  itrayinfj 
for  day  to  come" — not  would  jJray  or  could  pray,  but  were  praying. 
— This  is  precisely  what  the  imperfect  indicative  ought,  by  the  laws 
of  the  Greek  Grammar,  to  mean.  Again,  in  Acts  26 :  29,  Paul  uses 
the  same  verb  to  express  impassioned  prayer — the  real  optative — the 
same  sentiment  which  our  Auth.  version  puts  into  this  word  in  Rom. 
9:3:  Does  Paul  use  the  imperfect  indicative  form  for  it  ?  Not  at 
all — but  he  uses  the  real  optative  form  and  makes  it  yet  stronger  by 
appending  "an."  "  I  icould  to  God — (i.  e.  I  would  pray  to  God) 
"  that  not  only  thou  but  all  who  hear  me  this  day,  were  both  almost 
and  altogether  such  as  I  am,  except  these  bonds." 

These  two  are  the  only  cases  of  usage  for  this  verb  that  are 
germain  to  our  enquiry — one,  imperfect  indicative  ;  the  other  opta- 
tive ;  both  bearing  with  their  full  strength  against  the  auth.  ver- 
sion and  in  favor  of  the  construction — 1  teas  wishing. 

2.  Boulomai.  Two  cases  of  usage  for  this  verb  have  been  con- 
sidered above  ;.  viz..  Acts  25  :  22  and  Phil.  13. 

Besides  these  are  the  following.  Acts2S:  18,  "  Who  having  ex- 
amined me,  icere  icilling  [or  wishing]   to  release  me  [in  the  A.  V. 


106  ROMANS.— CHAP   IX. 

Some  critics  claim  a  very  special  sense  for  this  form  of 
the  verb  in  all  the  four  passages  (including  the  one  in  hand 
as  the  fourth) — viz.  I  could  wish,  under  some  not  defined 
circumstances,  but  do  not  wish  it  in  view  of  all  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case.  But  I  see  no  reason  for  giving  this 
special  sense  to  the  words  of  Agrippa  (Acts  35  :  22)  nor  to 
Paul  (Gal.  4  :  20) ;  and  this  modification  in  our  passage 
— "I  could"  (under  some  supposable  circumstances  but 
not  under  all  the  circumstances)  "wish  myself  a  curse" 
— leaves  them  without  much  definite  significance  of  any 
sort. 

2.  Tlie  words  ''I  myself"  [Gr.  '"'ego  autos  "  ]  in  this 
clause  constitute  a  very  valuable  criterion  of  the  precise 
meaning.  For  in  the  Greek  tongue  "ego "is  never  writ- 
ten out  except  for  the  purpose  of  emphasis — a  certain  de- 
gree more  or  less  of  emphasis,  calling  attention  to  the 
personality  and  placing  it  naturally  in  contrast  or  antithe- 
sis with  something  else.  "  Autos  "  with  it  heightens  this 
emphasis,  Imyscl/helng  stronger  than  '•'  /"  alone.  [There 
can  be  no  question  that  "autos"  qualifies  "ego,"  (I).] 
Now  let  it  be  carefully  observed  that  this  I  myself  must 
either  come  before  the  verb  (A.  V.  "could  "  wish),  or  be- 
fore the  infinitive  to  he,  i.  e.  a  curse.  In  the  former  sup- 
position, it  gives  this  emphasis  ; — For  I  my  self  was  [once] 
wishing  to  be  separated  from  Christ.  In  the  latter — For 
I  could  wish  that  I  myself  were  separated  from  Christ :  i.  e. 
in  behalf  of  my  brethren.  In  the  former  alternative  the 
emphasis  lies  in  comparing  his  own  former  experience  with 
theirs  ;  in  the  latter,  it  lays  stress  on  what  he  himself 
would  gladly  suffer  for  the  sake  of  saving  his  brethren. — I 

"  would  have  let  me  gQ  "] — but  really,  the  sen.se  is  not  optative  or 
subjunctive,  but  imperfect  indicative— were  wishiiig  to  let  me  go. 

(b.")  Another  decisive  case  is  2  Cor.  1  :  15.  "  In  this  confidence, 
I  was  w^ishing  before  to  come  to  you"  : — imperfect  indicative,  and 
with  the  sense — not  I  could  wish,  but  certainly,  I  was  wishing. 

(c.)  Finally  we  have  for  this  verb  one  case  of  the  real  optative 
form — niz.  in  Acts  25  :  20.  "I  asked  him  whether  he  would  go  to 
Jerusalem" — i.  e.  if  he  would  be  willing  to  go — a  legitimate  use  of 
the  optative — such  as  our  auth.  ver.  puts  upon  our  contested  passage 
— I  could  icish.  But  Festus  used — not  the  imperfect  indicative,  but 
the  genuine  optative  mood. 

These  cases  exhaust  the  New  Testament  list  of  authorities  for  the 
usage  of  these  two  verbs.  I  submit  that  usage  is  solid  against  the 
construction  of  the  auth.  version,  and  m  favor  <?/the  parenthetic — 
I  was  wishing. 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX.  107 

trust  the  reader  will  see  how  much  turns  upon  locating 
these  two  emphatic  words.  There  is  a  wide  difference  be- 
tween the  first — "  For  /  myself  was  wishing  (once  as  they 
do  now)  ;  and  the  second  : — For  I  could  wish  to  be  7ny  very 
self  a  curse  from  Christ  for  my  brethren — making  myself  a 
sacrifice  for  their  salvation.  Every  reader  Avill  see  that  the 
former  location  of  these  emphatic  words  falls  in  fully  with 
the  parenthetic  construction  ;  while  the  latter  equally  falls 
in  with  and  sustains  the  authorized  version. 

It  is  now  in  place  to  apply  the  principles  of  Greek  gram- 
mar to  the  location  of  these  emphatic  words  : — and  say  (1) 
That  not  the  least  objection  can  lie  against  placing  them 
before  the  yevhtoish  ;  But  (2)  That  the  principles  of  Greek 
grammar  forbid  placing  them  before  the  infinitive,  to  he, 
"Autos"  alone  (though  it  be  a  nominative)  might  stand 
before  this  infinitive  (to  be),  but  "  ego  "  cannot  stand  there. 
Ego  can  never  stand  as  the  subject  before  the  infinitive. 
This,  I  take  to  be  an  invariable  law  of  the  Greek  tongue. 
If  so,  then  our  words, — "  I  myself  " — must  belong  to  the 
verb  "  wish  "  as  its  subject  and  consequently,  throw  the 
full  weight  of  their  emphasis  in  favor  of  the  parenthetic 
construction  and  against  that  of  the  Auth.  version. 

Therefore  on  these  strong  grammatical  grounds  we 
must  translate — not  "  I  could  wish  myself  to  be  accursed  ; " 
but  '"'I  myself  was  [once]  wishing  to  be  accursed  from 
Christ."  The  former,  violating  the  fixed  usages  of  Greek 
grammar  should  be  rejected  ;  the  latter,  following  closely 
those  laws  should  be  accepted. 

II.  Excgetical  Argument . 

1.  First  and  foremost  is  the  influence  of  the  immedi- 
ately preceding  context.  This  whole  line  of  thought  (v.l- 
3.)  was  suggested  by  those  sublime  sentiments  (8:  35,  38  and 
39) ; — '•  Who  shall  separate'us  from  the  love  of  Christ  ?" — 
"I  am  persuaded  that  neither  death  nor  life.  .  .  shall  be 
able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus  !  " — "  But  alas,  as  I  think  of  my  unbelieving  breth- 
ren, how  am  I  agonized  !  They  are  utter  strangers  to  this 
blessedness  of  being  forever  united  with  Christ.  I  know 
but  too  well  how  they  feel ;  I  have  felt  it  all  myself  !  Their 
present  feeling  is  precisely  my  past  feeling  over  again  !" — 
Now  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  thought  in  the  open- 


108  ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX. 

ing  of  chap.  9  links  itself  in  this  way  to  the  closing  thought 
of  chap.  8. — this  latter  suggesting  the  rery  opposite  state 
of  feeling  then  reigning  and  raging  in  the  hearts  of  unbe- 
lieving Jews. 

2.  Next  let  it  be  carefully  noted  that  as  the  preceding 
context  (8:  35-39.)  leads  the  thought  of  our  passage,  so 
does  it  also  in  great  part  shape  the  expression.  Especially 
it  brings  forward  the  idea  of  separation  from  Christ.  As 
that  was  the  central  thought  in  the  preceding  context,  so  is 
it  the  leading  thought  here.  Paul  thinks  first  of  the  un- 
believing Jews  as  having  not  the  least  sympathy  with  his 
joy  in  being  never  separated  from  Christ ;  and  next  (a  sug- 
gested thought)  as  cursing  the  name  of  the  Christ  whom 
Christians  adored.  The  combined  influence  of  these 
thoughts  seems  to  have  shaped  his  phrase — ''Anathema 
from  the  Christ.''' 

It  is  one  of  the  fixed  and  potent  laws  of  language  that 
the  context  which  leads  the  thought  should  also  give  shape 
to  the  expression.  And  if  we  couple  with  this  influence, 
that  of  the  historic  fact  respecting  the  unbelieving  Jews — 
that  they  used  this  word  "  anathema  "  over  the  name  of  the 
Christian's  "  Christ,"  we  seem  to  have  accounted  adequately 
for  these  words  of  Paul,  "Anathema  from  the  Christ." 

It  is  a  fact  of  history  that  unbelieving  Jews  cursed  both 
Christians  and  Christ.  In  Justin  Martyr's  Dialogue  with 
Trypho  the  Jew,  he  said — "Ye  curse  Him  and  them  that 
believe  on  Him."  Trypho  confessed  to  Justin  that  the  Jew- 
isli  Doctors  forbade  their  pupils  to  dispute  with  Christians 
because  they  blasphemed  in  comparing  Jesus  Christ  with 
Moses ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  christians  would  hold  no 
argument  with  Jews  because  they  cursed  Christ."  (Jahn's 
Heb.  Commonwealth,  p.  550). — The  New  Testament  has 
various  traces  of  this  appalling  Jewish  usage  of  the  word 
"anathema"  over  the  name  of  Christ; — e.  g.  what  Paul 
says  (Acts  26:  11.)  of  his  mad  persecution,  of  the  Christian 
sect — "'Compelled  them  to  blaspheme  "  t.e.  "to  curse  the 
name  of  Christ"  (Alex.).  "If  any  man  love  not  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  let  him  be  anathema"  (not  "anathema,"  for 
honoring  that  name  as  the  Jews  were  imprecating  their 
anathemas,)  but  for  not  loving  it.  (1.  Cor.  16:  22). — "  No 
man,  speaking  by  the  Spirit,  calleth  Jesus  anatliema " 
(1.  Cor.  12:  3). 

The  objection  that  "anathema  from   Christ"  cannot 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX,  109 

fitly  be  said  of  one  who  had  not  been  personally  in  Christ,  (so 
that  Paul  could  not  say  it  of  himself  before  his  conversion), 
finds  its  answer  in  the  controlling  influence  of  the  preced- 
ing contest — "separated  from  Christ" — which  Paul  first 
thinks  of  as  to  himself  gloriously  impossible;  next  as  being 
what  the  unbelieving  Jews  virtually  imprecated  with  ana- 
themas,— which  madness  of  guilty  unbelief  Paul  remem- 
bers to  have  once  felt  himself  as  they  did  then.  There- 
fore he  knows  but  too  well  their  guilt  and  their  doom.  The 
most  appalling  consequence  of  that  rabid  unbelief  was  that 
its  anathema  over  the  name  of  Christ  involved  separation 
from  Christ  forever. 

3.  In  the  punctuation  of  the  authorized  version  with 
period  at  the  end  of  v.  2,  the  sentiment  of  vs.  1,  2  is  left 
incomplete,  unfinished.  We  ask,  "great  sorrow" — over 
what  ?  and  get  no  answei'.  The  sentence  needs  something 
to  lean  upon — but  finds  nothing.  We  have  it  supplied 
precisely  and  most  satisfactorily  when  we  connect  v.  2. 
with  what  comes  after  the  proposed  parenthesis — thus  : 
"I  have  continued  sorrow  in  my  heart"  (...)  "for  my 
brethren."  The  parenthesis  gives  a  valid  reason  for  his 
great  sorrow,  and  yet  without  preventing  him  from  saying 
what  his  great  sorrow  is  for.  Here,  the  parenthesis  finds 
its  natural  place  and  fills  it.  This  is  the  sort  of  reasoning 
that  justifies  the  introduction  of  the  parenthesis. 

4.  The  first  word  of  this  V.  3.  "  for  " — representing  the 
Greek  "  gar  ''—indicates  a  logical  connection.  By  well  es- 
tablished usage,  what  follows  gar  ("  for  ")  gives  a  reason 
for  what  precedes — in  this  case  a  reason  for  his  great  sor- 
row. But  if  we  accept  the  authorized  version,  this  reason 
has  not  the  least  pertinence.  To  say — I  have  great  sorrow 
iecause  I  could  wish  myself  accursed  from  Christ — is  to 
talk  nonsense.  It  not  merely  assigns  no  worthy  reason  ;  it 
assigns  no  reason  at  all. — On  the  other  construction,  put- 
ting this  clause  in  a  parenthesis,  this  word  [gar]  is  forci- 
bly pertinent.  I  have  this  great  sorrow  over  my  brethren 
iecause  I  know  their  heart  ;  I  have  had  all  those  feelings 
myself  !  I  know  their  delusion — their  infatuation — and 
their  doom  ! 

5.  If  the  sentiment  of  the  auth.  version  is  right,  Paul 
should  have  approached  and  introduced  it  thus  : — I  am  so 
agonized  for  my  unbelieving  brethren  that  I  could  even 
wish  to  be   separated  from   Christ  for  their  sake. — This 


110  ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX. 

would  be  more  natural  and  sensible  than  to  sa}" — I  am  in 
great  agony  because  I  could  wish  to  be  separated  from 
Christ ! 

6.  Yet  further ;  If  the  general  sentiment  of  the  Auth. 
version  is  right,  Paul  should  have  chosen  a  verb  with  the 
sense  of  endur^e  rather  than  desire : — I  could  even  endure 
to  be  sejDarated  from  Christ — not,  I  could  desire,  pray  for — 
such  separation.  The  difference  is  great — too  great  for 
such  a  man  as  Paul  to  overlook  and  ignore. 

7.  The  translation  of  the  Auth.  version  is  indefensible 
because  it  is  compelled  to  add  to  the  inspired  word  a  vital 
clause  which  Paul  left  out — viz.  this — if  it  would  do  any 
good ;  if  my  becoming  anathema  from  Christ  would  save 
them. — But  here  it  is  pertinent  to  recall  the  fact  that  Paul 
has  shown  himself  very  jealous  of  other  gospels — other 
names  by  which  to  be  saved  except  the  one  glorious  name 
of  Jesus.  If  even  an  angel  from  heaven  were  to  bring  for- 
ward any  other  name,  Paul  says,  "  Let  him  be  accursed  " 
(Gal.  1:  8).  Is  Paul  then  the  man  to  put  himself  forward 
as  the  atoning  sacrifice  for  his  unbelieving  brethren,  to  be 
himself  a  curse  from  Christ,  for  the  sake  of  their  salvation  ? 
— And  this,  moreover,  with  no  reference  to  the  implied 
condition — If  it  could  be  of  any  avail ! 

The  scheme  of  interpretation  which  is  obliged  to  intro- 
duce implied  conditions  so  important  as  this,  yet  not  ex- 
pressed, must  labor  heavily.  The  dilemma  is  stern  either 
way — to  put  in  the  condition  or  to  leave  it  out ;  either 
would  seem  to  be  fatal  to  this  construction. 

To  evade  this  dilemma  by  virtually  saying  that  Paul 
wrote  this  impulsively,  and  did  not  really  mean  any  such 
thing,  only  escapes  one  difficulty  by  plunging  into  another. 
Did  Paul  use  words  without  any  real  meaning  ? 

III.  It  remains  to  speak  of  the  nature  of  the  sentiment 
which  the  auth.  version  involves. 

1.  It  seems  not  only  incongruous  but  revolting,  to 
bring  Paul  down  from  that  sublime  height  of  assurance 
that  nothing  should  ever  separate  him  from  Christ,  and 
make  him  say — I  could  wish  to  be  separated  from  Christ, 
even  as  a  curse  ! 

2.  As  said  above,  it  is  revolting  to  interpret  his  words, 
to  suggest  the  possibility  of  saving  his  brethren  by  such 
self-immolation.     Was  Paul  the  man  to  do  this  ? 

3.  Bearing  in   mind  that  the  context  requires  that 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX.  HI 

**  anathema  from  Christ,"  should  be  essentially  separation 
from  Christ ;  and  also  that  the  case  of  the  unbelieving 
Jews  must  interpret  and  determine  Paul's  meaning  in  these 
words,  we  are  compelled  to  say  that  this  wish  and  prayer 
arc  a  great  sin.  It  certainly  was  sin  as  it  lay  in  the  hearts 
of  the  unbelieving  Jews,  cursing  the  name  of  Christ.  It 
was  a  sin  of  the  same  sort  as  it  lay  in  Paul's  ungodly  life, 
when  he  was  "  compelling  Christians  to  blaspheme  ;"  and 
this,  it  would  seem,  must  be  the  sense  of  his  words  here. 
Still  more  revolting  and  insupposable  will  this  appear,  if 
we  consider  that  it  is  this  very  sin  of  his  brethren  which 
agonizes  his  heart  at  this  moment  so  terribly  !  Is  it  possi- 
ble, now,  that  in  the  same  breath  he  can  say — "I  could 
wish  for  myself  the  same  sin  and  the  same  doom,  in  behalf 
of  my  brethren  !" 

4.  The  common  attempt  to  justify  the  auth.  version  by 
appeal  to  Moses  (Ex.  32:  32),  is  a  failure.  Moses  says  only 
this  : — Lord,  thou  art  threatening  to  blot  this  nation 
from  thy  book  of  the  living  (earthly  life)  ;  I  pray  thee  for- 
give ;  or  if  not,  blot  out  my  name  also  ! — So  far  as  appears, 
this  looks  to  the  death  of  the  body  only  ;  and  means  only 
the  sacrifice  of  his  personal  life  for  the  nation's  life — to 
which  there  is  not  the  least  moral  objection.  This  is 
Christian  heroism.  Many  a  man  has  been  ready  to  give 
up  his  earthly  life  for  the  life  of  a  nation.  It  is  a  totally 
different  thing  from  wishing  to  be  anathema  from  Christ — 
separated,  like  the  unbelieving  Jews,  from  his  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ,  forever. 

My  final  remark  is,  that  if  in  some  minds  the  auth. 
version  has  found  favor,  because  it  is  thought  to  make 
Paul  a  moral  hero,  and  his  sacrifice  of  himself  a  second 
Calvary,  this  consideration  should  never  be  allowed  to 
override  the  just  laws  of  interpretation. 

4.  Who  are  Israelites  ;  to  whom  pertaineth  the  adop- 
tion, and  the  glory,  and  the  covenants,  and  the 
giving  of  the  law,  and  the  service  of  God,  and  the 
promises : 

5.  Whose  a7'e  the  fathers,  and  of  whom  as  concerning 
the  flesh  Christ  came,  who  is  over  all,  God  blessed  for 
ever.    Amen. 

"Who  indeed  are  Israelites  ;"  or  inasmuch  as  they  are. 


112  ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX. 

— ''  To  whom  belongs  the  adoption,"  for  of  them  God  said 
through  Moses  ; — '•  Israel  is  my  son,  even  my  first-born." 
(Ex.  4:  22,  and  19:  5,  6, and  Deut.  14:  1,  2).-~Also  '-the 
glory  ;" — which  in  the  Old  Testament  sense,  was  the  visi- 
ble, manifested  effulgence  or  glory  of  the  divine  Presence, 
reposing  upon  the  mercy-seat,  in  the  inner  sanctuary. — 
"And  the  covenants" — i.  e.  those  made  first  with  Abra- 
ham ;  repeated  and  reaffirmed  to  Isaac  and  to  Jacob  : — 
"  The  giving  of  the  law"  on  Sinai — an  event  of  supreme 
national  importance. — "The  service  of  God" — this  term 
"  service"  denoting  the  religious  rites  of  national  worship 
to  be  observed  at  the  tabernacle  and  temple. — Last,  not 
least — "  the  promises,"  culminating  in  their  Messiah,  yet 
including  also  the  grand  events  of  his  reign  over  his  gospel 
kingdom,  nnto  the  filling  the  earth  with  the  knowledge  of 
God,  and  evangelizing  the  nations.  Thus  far  Paul  cata- 
logues the  blessings,  largely  of  external  sort  and  relations, 
with  which  God  had  distinguished  ancient  Israel. 

Besides  those,  they  also  inherited  the  fathers — the 
legacy  of  their  names,  their  faith,  their  heroic  virtues ; 
but  highest  and  best  of  all,  is  this — that  in  their  line 
came  Christ,  the  long  promised  Messiah  i.  e,,  as  to  his 
human  nature — "of  the  flesh." 

On  the  last  clause  of  v.  5,  critical  opinions  divide 
broadly  into  two  classes,  indicated  primarily  by  the  punc- 
tuation, but  fundamentally  by  the  resulting  sense,  on  the 
point  whether  the  last  clause  shall  refer  to  Christ,  or  to 
God  only  and  7iot  to  Christ. 

(a.)  One  class  of  critics  sustain  the  A.  V.,  placing  only 
a  comma  after  "flesh,"  [in  the  Greek — of  whom  is  Christ 
as  to  the  "flesh  "] — thus  making  the  article  and  participle 
[do)v]  refer  to  Christ,  and  the  last  clause  affirm  that  he 
is  "  God  over  all,  to  be  blessed  forever." 

(b.)  The  other  class  place  a  full  period  after  "flesh," 
and  then  read  the  last  clause  as  a  special  doxology  to  God  : 
"  Let  the  one  who  is  over  all  be  blessed  forever  !" 

The  reader  will  bear  in  mind  that  punctuation  does  not 
come  down  from  the  insj^ired  writers,  nor  is  it  indicated 
in  the  oldest  manuscripts.  In  fact  it  is  a  matter  of  inter- 
pretation, depending  on  exegesis  and  not  by  any  means 
leading  and  controlling  it.  Consequently  it  has  come  to 
pass,  that  doctrinal  opinions  have  for  the  most  part  decided 
the  judgment  of  the  critics.     Those  who  assume  that  Paul 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX.  113 

ought  not  to  call  Jesus  "  Theos  '*'  [God]  and  cannot  be 
supposed  to  have  done  so,  will  punctuate  and  interpret  in 
the  second  above  named  method  ;  while  those  who  raise  no 
objection  to  Paul's  applying  the  name  Theos  to  Christ, 
have  sustained  the  Authorized  Version. 

It  is  due  to  the  former  class  to  say  that  they  find  Theos 
usually  applied  to  the  Father,  and  in  their  opinion,  never 
elsewhere  applied  to  Christ.  Of  this  they  make  large  ac- 
count.— [The  full  examination  of  this  point  would  scarcely 
come  within  my  plan  in  these  Notes]. 

There  are,  however,  some  considerations  other  than 
doctrinal  which  are  worthy  of  regard. 

(a.)  To  arrest  what  Paul  is  saying  of  Christ  at  the  word 
"  flesh  "  and  then  introduce  matter  respecting  God  which 
does  not  refer  at  all  to  Christ,  is  abrupt,  harsh,  unnatural. 
The  article  [« before  the  participle  uv\,  equivalent  to  a  rela- 
tive pronoun,  calls  for  an  antecedent ;  but  on  construction 
second,  calls  in  vain.  To  begin  a  new  sentence  in  this 
way  is  an  anomaly,  and  should  have  strong  grounds  of  sup- 
port, or  be  rejected. 

(b.)  Having  spoken  of  Christ,  the  nation's  Messiah,  as 
to  his  human  nature,  it  is  specially  appropriate  to  speak  in 
this  immediate  connection  of  his  divine  nature.  Moreover, 
this  is  not  only  appropriate  in  itself,  but  is  in  accordance 
with  Paul's  usage,  as  may  be  seen  in  this  epistle  (1 :  3,  4). 

To  obviate  objections  to  this  authorized  version  and  to 
its  construction  will  conduce  to  its  support.  Hence, — (1) 
The  objection  to  applying  the  name  "  Theos"  to  the  Mes- 
siah is  abated  by  the  circumstance  that  it  stands  without 
the  article.  Paul  does  not  say  ^^  the  God,"  bnt  only 
'•'  God  " — as  John  says  (John  1:1)^'  the  word  was  God," 
but  does  not  say — was  tJie  God.  The  latter,  if  said,  might 
be  understood  to  mean — Comprises  in  himself  all  there  is 
in  God — is  the  one  supreme  God. — (2.)  If  it  be  said  that 
Paul  nowhere  applies  the  name  Theos  to  Chi'ist,  it  may  be 
replied  that  the  fair  and  all  but  necessary  construction  of 
Tit.  2  :  13  gives  to  Christ  this  name  :  "  Looking  for  the 
glorious  appearing  of  the  Great  God,  even  of  our  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ.  (See  my  Notes  on  this  passage). — (3.)  If  it 
be  said  that  the  words — ''over  all" — are  inapplicable  to 
Christ,  inasmuch  as  they  would  exalt  him  above  even  the 
Father  and  make  him  the  Supreme  God  ;  I  reply — There 
is  no  occasion  to  strain  these  words  to  that  extent.     Whv 


Hi  ROMANS— CHAP.  IX. 

need  they  mean  more  than  the  words  ''  Lord  of  all "' — 
twice  applied  to  Christ  (Acts  10  36,  and  Eom.  10  :  12),  or 
more  than  Paul  has  verv  explicitly  affirmed  even  with  re- 
markable detail  (in  Eph.  1  :  20-22),  "  Which  he  wrought 
in  Christ,  when  he  raised  him  from  the  dead,  and  set  him 
at  his  own  right  hand  in  the  heavenly  places,  far  above 
all  principality,  and  power,  and  might,  and  dominion,  and 
every  name  that  is  named,  not  only  in  this  world,  but  also 
in  that  which  is  to  come  :  And  hath  put  all  things  under 
his  feet :  "  or  (in  Phil.  2  :  9-11)— '"'  God  hath  highly  exalted 
him  and  gave  him  a  name  which  is  above  every  name .... 
that  every  tongue  should  confess  that  Jesus  is  Lord,  to  the 
glory  of  God  the  Father." 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  cases  in  which  the  name 
"  Theos  "  is  applied  to  Christ  are  very  rare — are  the  excep- 
tions, not  the  rule.  Ordinarily  the  remark  of  Meyer  is 
true;  "There  runs  through  the  whole  New  Testament  a 
delicate  line  of  separation  between  the  Father  and  the  Son  ; 
so  that,  although  the  divine  essence  and  glory  of  the  latter 
are  glorified  with  the  loftiest  predicates  in  manifold  ways, 
nevertheless  it  is  [with  rare  exceptions]  only  the  Father  to 
whom  the  Son  is  throughout  subordinated,  and  never 
Christ  who  is  actually  called  God  by  the  Apostles." 

4.  It  is  said  that  this  word  "blessed"  [eulogetos]  is 
used  elsewhere  of  the  Father  only.  With  the  exception  of 
our  passage  here,  I  think  this  is  the  case.  The  instances 
are  Markl6  :  CI— Luke  1  :  68— Eom.  1  :  25—2  Cor.  1  :  3 
and  11  :  31,  and  Eph.  1  :  3,  and  1  Pet.  1  :  3.  But  nothing 
imperatively  forbids  that  this  word  should  be  used  of 
Christ  as  Lord  of  all.  Certainly  He  too  is  worthy  to  be 
blessed  forever. 

Finally,  the  considerations  in  support  of  the  authorized 
version  are  in  my  judgment  strong,  yet  not  such  as  amount 
to  philological  or  exegetical  demonstration. 

Some  general  re^narks  on  the  scope  of  the  chapter 
(especially  v.  6-33),  will  be  in  place  here. 

It  requires  only  a  superficial  reading  of  this  chapter  to 
see  that,  having  spoken  of  his  great  sorrow  over  his  unbe- 
lieving Jewish  countrymen,  he  proceeds  for  some  reason 
to  speak  in  very  strong  terms  of  the  divine  sovereignty  as 
manifested  towards  Israel,  and  for  his  authority  appeals  to 
the  writings  of  Moses,  Hosea  and  Isaiah. 

But  it  requires  more  than  a  merely  surface  reading  of 


-i 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX.  115 

the  chapter  to  comprehend  what  were  the  underlying  rea- 
sons for  this  strong  presentation  of  divine  sovereignty.  To 
understand  these  we  shall  need  to  ascertain  what  people 
Paul  is  writing  for  and  holding  in  his  thought  throughout 
this  chapter  and  the  two  next  following.  Who  is  the  ideal 
objector  who  is  supposed  to  claim  that  if  what  Paul  as- 
sumes be  true,  then  '•'the  word  of  God  has  taken  none  ef- 
fect "  (v.  6) ; — who  meets  him  with  the  objection  :  '•'  Then 
there  must  be  unrighteousness  with  God  "  (v.  14)  ;  and 
who  "replies  against  God"  (as  indicated  in  v.  20). — We 
shall  feel  the  more  sure  that  we  have  the  right  clew  to  the 
whole  argument  of  Paul  if  we  find  some  satisfactory  rea- 
sons for  his  intensely  strong  affirmation  of  his  great  sorrow 
over  the  case  of  his  lineal  brethren  ;  for  these  affirmations 
quite  obviously  assume  that  Paul  scarcely  hopes  to  be  be- 
lieved— at  least  is  conscious  of  speaking  against  a  very  stub- 
born skepticism. — Light  on  these  points  may  help  us  un- 
derstand how  this  doctrine  of  divine  sovereignty  lay  in 
Paul's  mind  and  what  bearing  it  had  in  his  thought  upon 
the  related  doctrine  of  human  agency. 

Here  I  must  recall  the  remark  made  in  my  General  In- 
troduction and  often  in  the  Notes — that  the  key  to  its  just 
interpretation  lies  in  the  Pharisee.  The  Pharisaic  Jew  is 
the  man  with  whom  Paul  is  debating  ;  the  man  for  whom 
he  is  writing. 

His  distmctive  character,  his  moral  and  theological  at- 
titude, are  ever  before  Paul's  mind.  The  objections  which 
Paul  anticipates  and  promptly  meets  are  sprung  upon  him 
by  the  Pharisee.  The  Pharisee  is  the  debater  with  whom 
Paul  holds  the  argument.  We  may  remember  that  as  he 
appears  throughout  the  gospel  history,  the  Pharisee  is  a 
chronic  debater,  we  might  say,  a  born  disputant,  a  wrangler. 
Did  he  not  try  "  to  entangle  Jesus  in  his  talk  ?" — Thus  we 
have  seen  throughout  chap.  6  and  7,  that  the  Pharisaic 
doctrine  of  being  "under  law  "  as  a  power  both  to  sanctify 
and  to  justify,  has  led  the  thought  and  argument  of  Paul. 
Here  in  chap.  9,  the  same  Pharisee  is  before  Paul's  mind. 
He  thinks  of  the  Pharisees  as  persistently  rejecting  Christ  in 
unbelief,  and  as  leading  the  masses  of  the  Jewish  nation — 
his  own  countrymen  and  theirs — into  this  appalling  moral 
ruin.  His  heart  is  burdened  with  grief  ;  for  he  looks  upon 
the  great  body  of  the  nation  as  lost — lost  despite  of  all 
their  grand  national  privileges,  prerogatives  and  possibili- 


116  ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX. 

ties;  despite  of  their  being  Israelites,  inheriting  "the 
adoption  ;  "  "  the  glory,"  "  the  covenants,"  the  giving  of 
the  law  and  the  promises  ; "  and  more  than  all,  the  honor 
of  having  the  Messiah  born  in  their  line  as  to  his  human 
flesh. 

But  mark  ; — this  Pharisee  does  not  thank  Paul  for  such 
sympathy  over  himself  and  his  countrymen  as  lost  men,  and 
lost  moreover,  because  of  their  Pharisaism.  He  resents  the 
imputation  as  an  insult.  \ye  all  lost  !  We  who  are  the 
chief  elect  of  God  !  We  who  "  have  Abraham  to  our 
father,"  and  are  heirs  with  him  of  all  the  promises  ! — 
Would  you  assume  that  those  glorious  promises  to  Abra- 
ham have  utterly  failed  and  come  to  nought  ? 

Paul  hears  what  they  are  saying  in  their  heart,  and 
therefore,  (beginning  with  v.  6)  he  replies  : 

6.  Not  as  though  the  word  of  God  hath  taken  none 
effect.     For  they  are  not  all  Israel,  which  are  of  Israel : 

7.  Neither,  because  they  are  the  seed  of  Abraham,  are 
they  all  children :  but,  In  Isaac  shall  thy  seed  be  called. 

8.  That  is,  They  which  are  the  children  of  the  flesh, 
these  are  not  the  children  of  God :  but  the  children  of 
the  promise  are  counted  for  the  seed. 

9.  For  this  is  the  word  of  promise;  At  this  time 
will  I  come,  and.  Sarah  shall  have  a  son. 

Ye  quite  misapprehend  this  matter  of  God's  promises. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  that  God's  word  of  promise 
should  fail  of  being  accomplished  !  For  be  it  noticed,  it 
is  one  thing  to  be  "of  Israel "  by  blood,  and  quite  another 
to  be  the  true  Israel  in  heart.  Not  all  of  the  former  class 
come  into  the  latter.  Ye  may  be  of  Israel  by  descent,  and 
yet  not  the  real  Israel  in  character. — So  also  the  promise 
to  Abraham  does  not  run  to  all  his  lineal  posterity  ;  for 
Ishmael  is  entirely  left  out,  and  only  '''  in  Isaac  "  is  the 
promised  seed  found.  The  significance  of  this  is  that  the 
children  of  the  promise  and  not  the  children  of  the  flesh 
are  counted  as  the  true  seed  of  Abraham. 

10.  And  not  only  this  /  but  when  Rebecca  also  had 
conceived  by  one,  even  by  our  father  Isaac, 

11.  (For  the  children  being  not  yet  born,  neither 
having  done  any  good  oi-  evil,  that  the  purpose  of  God 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX.  117 

according  to  election  miglit  stand,  not  of  works,  but  of 
him  that  calleth :) 

12.  It  was  said  nnto  her,  The  elder  shall  serve  the 
younger. 

13.  As  it  is  written,  Jacob  have  I  loved,  but  Esau 
have  I  hated. 

Here  is  a  second  limitation  ;  for  of  the  twin  sons  of 
Rebecca  and  Isaac,  one  only  had  the  birthright  and  the 
promises.     Before  their  birth,  God  had  said  to  the  mother  ; 
*' The  elder  shall  serve  the  younger"  (See  G-en.  25:  23). 
The  Prophet  Malachi  (1:  2,  3)  is  also  quoted  to  the  like 
result ; — "  I  loved  Jacob  and  I  hated  Esau,  and  laid  his 
mountains   waste   in   desolation."     Paul  makes  a  special 
point  of  the  circumstance  that  God  made  known  this  choice 
of  Jacob  rather  than  Esau  before  their  birth,  and  therefore 
before  they  had  done  either  moral  good  or  evil.     From  this 
fact  he  infers  that  this  choice  did  not  turn  upon  their  per- 
sonal doings  or  character,  but  upon  God's  purpose — the 
grounds  of  which  are  not  revealed.     Paul  does  not  either 
say  or  imply  that  God  had  no  reasotis.     He  only  denies  that 
those  reasons  lay  in  the  moral  good  or  evil  of  the  two  sons 
between  whom  God's  choice  was  made. — It  should  also  be 
specially  noted  that  in  this  case  the  electing  purpose  of  God 
had  reference  to  these  sons  as  heing  or  not  being  the  heirs 
of  God's  great  promises  to  Abraham  and  to  his  seed.     In 
which  of  the  two  should  these  lineal  blessings  descend  ? 
This  question  was  not  that  of  their  individual  salvation  or 
damnation,  and  therefore  Paul  does  not  say  or  even  imply 
that  the  personal  salvation  of  these  twin  brothers  was  de- 
termined in  God's  counsels  irrespective  of  their  moral 
action  and  character.     The  special  point  of  the  discussion 
hei'e  is  the  line  of  descent  in  which  the  blessings  promised 
to  Abraham  and  to  his  seed  should  flow,  and  the  limita- 
tions and  choices  made  in  his  lineal  posterity. — These  points 
were  pertinent  to  the  grand  issue  between  Paul  and  the 
Pharisee — this  Pharisee   insisting  that   all   men,    having 
Abraham's  blood  in  their  veins,  especially  if  they  glorified 
the  law  of  Moses,  were  favorites  of  God  and  sure  of  Abra- 
ham's paradise.     Paul  would  have  them  understand  that 
this  sort  of  title  to  God's  favor  is  simply  worthless — of  no 
account  whatever.     They  had  reasoned  from  utterly  false 
premises.     Paul  meant  to  put  it  sharply  before  their  mind 
6 


118  ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX, 

that  their  doctrine  must  have  brought  both  Ishmael  and 
Esau  within  the  pale  of  the  covenant ;  but  as  it  certainly 
did  not,  it  might  also  leave  out  the  unbelieving  Pharisee. 

14.  "What  shall  we  say  then  ?  Is  there  unrighteous- 
ness with  God  ?     God  forbid, 

15.  For  he  saith  to  Moses,  I  will  have  mercy  on 
whom  I  will  have  mercy,  and  I  will  have  compassion  on 
whom  I  will  have  compassion. 

16.  So  then  it  is  not  of  him  that  willeth,  nor  of  him 
that  runneth,  but  of  God  that  sheweth  mercy. 

17.  For  the  Scriptures  saith  unto  Pharaoh,  Even  for 
this  same  purpose  have  I  raised  thee  up,  that  I  might 
shew  my  power  in  thee,  and  that  my  name  might  be  de- 
clared throughout  all  the  earth. 

18.  Therefore  hath  he  mercy  on  whom  he  will  have 
m-ercy,  and  whom  he  will  he  hardeneth. 

Let  it  be  borne  carefully  in  mind  that  the  points  at 
issue  between  Paul  and  the  Pharisee  are — (1)  Whether 
God  does  in  fact  discriminate  among  the  lineal  seed  of 
Abraham,  saving  some,  and  not  saving  others — Paul  af- 
firming ;  the  Pharisee  denying  : — and  (2)  Whether  God  can 
do  this  righteously ; — here  also  Paul  affirming,  and  the 
Pharisee  denying.  —  Tlie  Pharisee  believes  and  stoutly 
maintains  that  Abraham  was  a  Prince  among  God's  elect 
and  that  all  his  children — the  Pharisees  especially — held 
under  him  by  the  highest  and  best  title  ;  and  furthermore 
he  seems  to  have  assumed  that  God  had  so  bound  himself 
by  his  promises  to  Abraham  and  to  his  seed  that  it  would 
be  most  unrighteous  for  him  to  disown  any  of  them  !  A 
certain  arrogance  of  presumption  and  a  vaunting  of  their 
own  righteousness  even  before  the  face  of  God  stand  out 
prominently  in  their  spirit  and  bearing. 

Against  this  Paul  argues,  bringing  scripture  to  show 
that  God  does  discriminate  in  the  exercise  of  mercy,  mani- 
festing it  to  whom  he  will  and  as  he  will ; — i.  e.  on  prin- 
ciples Avhich  approve  themselves  to  his  own  infinite  reason. 
— This  last  named  point  must  be  made  quite  emphatic  in 
order  to  develop  Paul's  logic.  Observe  he  affirms  that 
there  can  never  be  unrighteousness  with  God,  and  assumes 
as  the  ground  of  this  affirmation — "for  "  (gar)  he  declared 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX.  119 

to  Moses — "  I  will  have  mercy  on  whom  I  will,"  Plainly, 
therefore,  Paul  assumes  that  the  will  of  God  is  not  caprice 
but  is  infinite  reason — always  wise,  alwa3^s  righteous. — He 
quotes  first  from  Moses  (Ex.  33:  19)— a  passage  which  as 
more  fully  expanded  in  Ex.  34:  6,  7  makes  the  divine  mercy 
exceedingly  emphatic,  yet  does  certainly  dispense  it  under 
limitations  prescribed  by  infinite  wisdom — i.  e.  in  accord- 
ance with  principles  and  laws  which  have  their  seat  and 
home  in  the  blended  wisdom  and  love  of  God. — The  7iame 
of  God  then  and  there  proclaimed,  was — "  The  Lord,  the 
Lord  God  merciful  and  gracious,  long-suffering  and  abund- 
ant in  goodness  and  truth  ;  but  who  will  by  no  means  clear 
the  guilty." 

The  second  passage  from  Moses  (referred  to,  v.  17.  as 
what  *'the  scripture  said  to  Pharaoh")  is  from  Ex.  9:  IG 
which  the  Auth.  version  translates  substantially  as  here — 
'•'raised  thee  up" — apparently  in  the  sense  of  making  him 
a  prominent  king  before  the  nations,  that  in  him  God's 
power  over  proud,  self-willed  kings  might  be  made  known 
and  his  righteous  justice  be  displayed  throughout  the 
earth.  The  original  Hebrew,  being  literally — '•'  /  have 
made  thee  to  stand,'"  favors  the  sense,  2Jrese7'ving  alive, 
when  his  outrageous  wickedness  seemed  to  demand  that 
he  should  be  cut  down  and  not  suffered  to  live.  Either 
way,  the  case  was  pertinent  to  Paul'  purpose,  viz.  to  show 
that  God  discriminated  according  to  his  own  wisdom, 
showing  mercy  to  whom  he  would,  and  leaving  whom  he 
would  to  self-hardening  and  to  the  consequent  righteous 
destruction. — The  case  of  Pharaoh  is  eminently  instructive 
to  the  point  that  God  never  hardens  hy  direct  agency,  mak- 
ing the  hardening  his  specific  and  only  purpose,  as  really 
so  as  on  the  other  hand  he  melts,  softens,  blesses,  saves. 
Whoever  would  see  this  shown  to  the  life  has  only  to  study 
the  scripture  record  of  the  process  in  which  Pharaoh's 
heart  was  in  fact  hardened. — The  Lord  had  a  point  to 
carry — the  deliverance  of  his  people  from  bondage.  Pharaoh 
fought  him  on  this  point  long  and  stubbornly,  yielding  a 
very  little  when  he  could  do  no  otherwise,  but  on  the  whole 
carried  through  the  conflict  — as  proud,  self-hardening  sin- 
ners are  wont  to  do — to  the  natural  result  of  his  own  de- 
struction. Noticeably  the  most  hardening  act  of  God — 
that  which  seems  to  have  had  the  most  direct  and  imme- 
diately hardening  effect — was  his  lifting  off  the  rod  and 


120  ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX. 

showing  Pharaoh  some  mercy.  "  When  Pharaoh  saw  tliat 
there  was  respite,"  his  heart  stiffened  up  again  in  rebellion. 
"  Because  vengeance  against  an  evil  work  is  not  executed 
speedily,  the  heart  of  the  sons  of  men  becomes  more  fully 
and  firmly  set  in  them  to  do  evil." — All  which  shows  that 
God's  agency  to  harden  is  that  of  leaving  sinner's  to  self- 
hardening — to  let  the  sinner's  personal  free  agency  run  its 
own  way  in  the  highest  unrestrained  freedom  possible.* 

At  this  point  it  cannot  be  amiss  to  call  the  reader's 
special  attention  to  the  remarlcable  fact  that  when  Paul's 
heart  is  painfully  saddened  by  the  hard  unbelief  of  sinners 
{e.  g.  unbelieving  Jews),  he  falls  back  for  his  comfort  upon 
the  sovereign  and  righteous  ways  of  God  in  his  moral  ad- 
ministration ; — e.  g.  at  Antioch  in  Pisidia,  (Acts  13  : 
44-48); — "Seeing  ye  put  the  word  of  God  from  you  and 
judge  yourselves  unworthy  of  everlasting  life,  lo,  we  turn 
to  the  Gentiles  ;" — And  again,  at  this  very  Eome  (subse- 
quently) after  **'  expounding  and  testifying  the  kingdom  of 
God  from  morning  to  evening,  and  some  believed  the 
things  spoken  and  some  believed  not,"  Paul  left  them  with 
that  one  pungent  word  from  Isa.  6  ;  "Hearing  ye  shall 
hear  and  shall  not  understand  ;  for  the  heart  of  this  peo- 
ple is  waxed  gross  ;  their  eyes  they  have  closed,  lest  they 
should  see,  .  .  .  and  should  be  converted,  and  I  should  heal 
them." — Noticeably  the  same  painful  facts  drew  from  the 
Lord  himself,  those  similar  and  memorable  words  (Matt. 
11 ;  25,  26)  ;  "I  thank  thee,  0  Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and 
earth,  because  thou  hast  hid  these  things  from  the  wise 
and  prudent,  and  hast  revealed  them  unto  babes.  Even 
so,  Father  ;  for  so  it  seemed  good  in  thy  sight." 

The  spirit  of  this  seems  to  be — If  some  men  are  too 
proud  and  too  wise  in  their  own  esteem  to  be  converted, 
God  will  yet  save  the  humble  of  heart  ;  if  they  are  too 
madly  bent  on  sin  to  turn,  God  knows  how  to  make  their 
wrath  work  out  his  own  praise  ;  and  he  ivill ! 

19.  Thou  v^^ilt  say  then  unto  me,  Why  doth  he  yet 
find  fault  ?     For  who  hath  resisted  his  Avill  ? 

20.  Nay  but,  O   man,  who   art   thou  that   repliest 

*  For  a  fall  analysis  of  tlio  history  of  Pharaoli's  self-liardening 
of  bis  own  heart,  the  reader  may  be  referred  to  my  Pentateuch, 
pages  19o-205. 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX.  121 

against  God  ?     Shall  the  thing  formed  say  to  liini  that 
formed  it,  Why  hast  thou  made  me  thus  ? 

21.  Hath  not  the  potter  power  over  the  clay,  of  the 
same  lump  to  make  one  vessel  unto  honour,  and  another 
unto  dishonour? 

22.  What  if  God,  willing  to  shew  Jds  wrath,  and  to 
make  his  power  known,  endured  with  much  long-suffer- 
ing the  vessels  of  wrath  fitted  to  destruction : 

23.  And  that  he  might  make  known  the  riches  of  his 
glory  on  the  vessels  of  mercy,  which  he  had  afore  pre- 
pared unto  glory, 

It  will  conduce  to  a  better  apprehension  of  these  verses, 
and  indeed  of  the  main  drift  of  this  chapter  to  ask — 

What  are  the  definite  points  as  to  which  Paul  assumes 
that  God  has  a  ivill  of  his  own — has  a  right  to  have  one — 
and  both  does  and  ought  to  maintain  it  ? 

We  may  name  these  three  : 

1.  The  will  to  shape  the  external  conditions  of  every 
human  life  as  he  pleases  ;  to  raise  up  a  Pharaoh  to  his  lofty 
throne  ;  to  make  one  vessel  foi  n,  more  honorable  use,  and 
another  for  one  less  honorable  ;  to  give  Ishmael  and  Esau 
their  personal  pro"bation  under  one  set  of  surroundings  ; 
Isaac  and  Jacob  theirs  in  another  set.  No  injustice  is  done 
to  any  of  these  classes  by  allotting  to  them  diverse  external 
conditions  ;  for  the  moral  trial  turns  wholly  and  only  upon 
their  improving  the  talents  God  has  given  them  whether 
one  or  ten.  God  never  demands  of  them  the  use  of  any- 
thing more  or  other  than  what  he  gives  them.  Herein  lies 
his  justice.     This,  it  seems,  is  the  point  put  in  vs.  20,  21. 

2.  The  will  to  conduct  his  moral  administration  over 
men  on  wise  and  righteous  principles,  including  among 
these  the  leaving  of  proud,  self-hardening  sinners  to  their 
own  chosen  infatuation  when  He  sees  that  in  justice  he 
can  and  in  wisdom  he  must.  This,  we  shall  see,  is  the 
point  put  so  emphatically  in  v.  22. 

3.  The  will  to  overrule  for  his  own  greater  glory  all 
the  sin  that  men  madly  persist  in  committing.  This 
"  will,"  the  Lord  carried  into  effect  in  the  case  of  Pharaoh. 
This  is  one  manifestation  of  the  will  of  God  which  sinners 
will  labor  forever  in  vain  to  frustrate.  In  all  such  attempts 
they  only  subserve  God's  purposes  the  more; 


122  ROMANS.-CIIAP.  IX. 

In  V.  20,  Paul  seems  to  have  in  mind  Isa.  45  ;  9  ;  in 
V.  21,  Isa.  29  ;  16.  Alike  these  passages  rebuke  the  bold, 
impious  irreverence  of  wicked  men  in  calling  their  Maker 
to  account  for  his  righteous  and  perfect  doings.  With 
profoundest  wisdom  and  good  sense  these  passages  assume 
that  the  creatures  of  God  are  bound  to  treat  their  Infinite 
Maker  with  respect  and  even  reverence. — '"Woe  to  him 
that  striveth  with  his  Maker,"  him  who  is  but  a  potsherd, 
wrangling  with  his  Infinite  Maker  as  he  would  with  any 
potsherd  of  the  earth  !  As  if  a  man  should  abuse  God  for 
casting  his  lot  in  poverty  and  not  in  wealth  ;  for  giving 
him  one  talent  and  not  ten  !  By  what  right  do  mortals 
fly  in  the  face  of  God  with  their  insults  and  their  com- 
plaints against  such  ways  of  his  providence  ? 

In  V.  22,  Paul's  word  for  ''  willing  " — "  willing  to  show 
his  wrath,"  means  not  consenting  but  wishing,  desiring ; 
[thelo].  The  case  comes  under  the  third  head  as  above 
classified,  of  points  in  which  God  has  a  tvill — and  a  right 
to  have  it — to  turn  to  moral  account  the  persistent  sin  of 
wicked  men  so  as  to  bring  out  good  from  their  wicked- 
ness. 

Let  it  be  said  hero  very  distinctly  and  even  emphatically 
that  it  becomes  us  to  notice  what  that  thing  is  which  Paul 
here  represents  God  as  doing. — Perhaps  the  reader  has 
been  assuming  that  this  replying  against  God  and  saying 
to  his  Maker — "Why  hast  thou  made  me  thus?  "really 
means,  and  was  intended  to  imply — Wliy  luist  Thou  made 
me  a  simier  ?  Why  hast  Thou  created  me  a  sinful  being, 
with  sin  in  my  very  constitution  ? 

If  so,  there  should  be  in  v.  22  a  still  more  particular 
development  of  the  same  thing; — What  if  God,  wishing 
to  show  his  righteous  displeasure  against  sin  and  his  power 
to  punish  it,  should  put  forth  the  same  sort  of  absolute, 
resistless  power  which  the  potter  does  upon  his  lump  of 
clay  and  actually  create  sin  ; — i.  e.  create  a  being  with  sin 
in  him  by  virtue  of  his  created  nature  ? 

But  before  he  shall  put  this  construction  upon  Paul, 
let  him  pause  and  look  carefully  into  the  Avords  which 
Paul  does  in  fact  use  and  the  things  he  does  say. 

What  is  that  thing  which  God  is  said  to  do  with  a  de- 
sire to  show  his  righteous  displeasure  against  sin  and  his 
power  to  control  and  punish  it  ?  Is  it  this — create  sin  ; 
comjjel  men  to  sin? — No  indeed;  but  this; — "endured 


_l 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX.  123 

witli  much  long-suffering ;"  bore  with  their  horrible  im- 
piety ;  their  insulting  abuse  ;  their  never-ending  ingrati- 
tude ; — bore  all  this  with  marvellous  long-suffering,  while 
these  vessels  of  wrath  were  fitting  themselves  for  destruc- 
tion ! — Fitting  themselves  is  beyond  question  the  sense  of 
Paul's  words,  for  the  verb  may,  in  form,  be  of  the  middle 
voice,  and  the  facts  of  the  case  demand  this  construction. 

The  wicked  man  is  here  called  a  "  vessel  of  wrath," 
from  the  use  of  this  word  '*'  vessel "  in  v.  31.  He  is  a  ves- 
sel of  wrath,  by  reason  of  his  own  free  voluntary  sin.  He 
has  abused  God's  patience ;  tasked  his  endurance  ;  availed 
himself  of  God's  long-suffering  to  sin  on  worse  and  worse, 
as  if  he  thought  God  was  prolonging  his  life  for  the  very 
purpose  of  giving  him  all  the  scope  for  sinning  that  his 
wicked  heart  can  desire  !  He  thus  makes  himself  an  ob- 
ject of  God's  real  wrath. 

But  what  has  the  Lord  done  to  bring  this  about  ?  Spe- 
cially let  the  question  here  be  : — What  does  Paid  say  that 
God  has  done  to  make  this  sinner  what  he  is  ? — Mark  the 
answer: — "  He  has  endured'^  his  sinning  and  his  mad  re- 
bellion "loith  much  long-suffering  !"  He  has  suffered  him 
to  live  on  in  sin  !  He  has  waited — Oh,  how  long  and  how 
patiently — and  sought  to  draw  him  by  kindness  and  to 
constrain  him  by  manifested  goodness,  toward  and  unto 
repentance.  This  is  the  worst  thing  God  has  done  to- 
ward making  him  a  great  and  incorrigible  sinner  ! — God 
might  have  done  otherwise,  aye,  might  have  smitten  that 
sinner  dead  upon  his  first  sin.  Then  that  sinner  would 
not  have  had  time  to  fit  himself  for  so  fcjirful  a  doom 
of  destruction. 

But  the  Scripture  suggests  that  we  should  ''account 
the  long-suffering  of  God  to  be  designed  for  salvation ;" 
and  truly,  for  how  else  could  any  mortal  be  saved  ? — And 
will  guilty  men  cavil  against  God's  merciful,  long-suffering 
and  patient  endurance — the  first  object  of  which  is  the 
sinner's  salvation  ? 

Let  it  be  noted  also,  that  as  thought  of  here  by  Paul, 
the  objection  brought  against  God  is,  that  He  endures 
abuse  from  sinners  with  much  long-suffering,  in  07'der 
that  he  may  Iring  moral  good  out  of  their  sin; — in  his  own 
words — that  he  may  "  show  his  wrath  and  make  his  power 
known," — and  in  the  case  of  the  saved — that  he  may  "  make 
known  the  riches  of  his  glory  on  the  vessels  of  mercy." 


124:  ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX. 

Objector  is  not  pleased  that  God  should  make  use  of  the 
sins  of  men  as  a  power  against  more  sinning  ;  and  of  the 
repentance  and  faith  of  men  as  an  inducement  to  more 
obedience.  But  as  we  have  seen,  this  is  one  of  those  things 
in  which  God  has  a  will  of  his  own,  against  which  it  were 
forever  in  vain  for  the  wicked  to  rebel. 

In  like  manner  God  claims  his  right  to  make  known 
the  riches  of  his  glory  [benevolence]  upon  the  vessels  of 
mercy — the  word  "  vessel"  here  also  looking  toward  v.  21. 

"  Whom  he  hath  afore  prejiared  " — i.  e,  by  the  agencies 
of  his  truth  and  grace. 

24.  Even  us,  whom  he  hath  called,  not  of  the  Jews 
only,  but  also  of  the  Gentiles  ? 

25.  As  he  saith  also  in  Osee,  I  will  call  them  my 
people,  which  were  not  my  people ;  and  her  beloved, 
which  was  not  beloved. 

26.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  in  the  place  where 
it  was  said  unto  them,  Ye  are  not  my  people ;  there 
shall  they  be  called  the  children  of  the  living  God. 

Which  applies  to  all  whom  God  hath  called  (in  the 
sense  of  Kom.  8:  30).  whether  from  Jews  or  Gentiles. 
Paul  then  cites  Hos.  1:  10,  and  2:  23,  to  show  that  God 
called  some  from  the  Gentiles  as  well  as  some  from  the 
Jews — from  Gentiles  never  before  known  as  his  people  or 
as  his  beloved,  but  now  become  his  beloved  ones. 

The  calling  of  any  Gentiles  (it  should  be  remembered), 
was  squarely  opposed  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Pharisees — viz. 
that  God's  electing  grace  called  in  all  the  seed  of  Abraham 
without  fail,  but  none  other — never  a  Gentile  ! 

27.  Esaias  also  crieth  concerning  Israel,  Though  the 
number  of  the  children  of  Israel  be  as  the  sand  of  the 
sea,  a  remnant  shall  be  saved : 

28.  For  he  will  finish  the  work,  and  cut  it  short  in 
righteousness  :  because  a  short  work  will  the  Lord  make 
upon  the  earth. 

29.  And  as  Esaias  said  before.  Except  the  Lord  of 
of  Sabaoth  had  left  us  a  seed,  we  had  been  as  Sodoma, 
and  been  made  like  unto  Gomorrah. 

The  doctrine  here  is — Not  all  even  of  the  Jews  ;  in 
fact,  only  a  minor  portion  ;  for  though  their  number  were 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  IX.  125 

as  the  sand,  yet  a  remnant  only  should  be  saved — author- 
ity for  which  he  finds  in  Isa.  10:  22,  23.  Short,  quick 
and  terrible  would  be  the  retribution  that  would  cut  oS 
the  guilty  masses  for  their  sin.— V.  29  is  taken  from 
Isa.  1:  9. 

30.  What  shall  we  saj  then?  That  the  Gentiles, 
which  followed  not  after  righteousness,  have  attained 
to  righteousness,  even  the  righteousness  which  is  of 
faith. 

31.  But  Israel,  which  followed  after  the  law  of  right- 
eousness, hath  not  attained  to  the  law  of  righteousness. 

32.  Wherefore  ?  Because  they  sought  it  not  by- 
faith,  but  as  it  were  by  the  works  of  the  law.  For  they 
stumbled  at  that  stumbling  stone  ; 

33.  As  it  is  written,  Behold,  I  lay  in  Sion  a  stumb- 
ling stone  and  rock  of  offence :  and  whosoever  believ- 
eth  on  him  shall  not  be  ashamed. 

What  then,  is  the  conclusion  to  which  we  come  ?  This: 
— that  the  Gentiles  who  as  a  body  had  not  sought  right- 
eousness, in  the  sense  of  the  Pharisees,  had  yet  attained  to 
righteousness  before  God  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ— illus- 
trations of  which  appear  repeatedly  in  the  history  of  Paul's 
gospel  labors  (c.  g.  Acts  13:  44-48,  and  17:  4,  and  18:  4-6, 
and  28:  23-28). 

But  Israel,  the  Jews — long  following  after  the  right- 
eousness of  the  law  in  the  Pharisaic  sense — had  come  utterly 
short  of  attaining  righteousness,  because  they  sought  it  not 
by  faith  in  Christ,  but  only  by  punctilious  and  proud  works 
of  law.  Alas  !  they  stumbled  over  the  Messiah — thought 
of  as  a  stone  upon  which  unbelievers  in  him  must  stumble 
and  fall  to  their  destruction.  (So  Isa.  8: 14,  15,  and  28:  16). 
— How  this  very  frequent  symbol  is  used  by  our  Lord,  may 
be  seen  Matt.  21:  42-44,  and  Luke  20:  15-18.  "Jesus 
saith  unto  them.  Did  ye  never  read  in  the  Scriptures, 
The  stone  which  the  builders  rejected,  the  same  is  become 
the  head  of  the  corner:  this  is  the  Lord's  doing,  and  it  is 
marvellous  in  our  eyes  ?  Therefore  say  I  unto  you.  The 
kingdom  of  God  shall  be  taken  from  you,  and  given  to  a 
nation  bringing  forth  the  fruits  thereof.  And  whosoever 
shall  fall  on  this  stone  shall  be  broken:  but  on  whomso- 
ever it  shall  fall,  it  will  grind  him  to  powder." 


126  ROMANS.— CHAP.  X. 


CHAPTER  X. 


The  central  thought  of  this  chapter,  is  that  many  of 
the  Jews  were  disowning  Christ  in  unbelief,  and  that  Gen- 
tiles were  coming  into  Christ's  kingdom  by  faith.  Col- 
lateral points  are — The  grand  mistake  of  the  Jews  in  seek- 
ing salvation  by  punctilious  observance  of  law  (v.  2,  3) ; 
ignoring  Christ  as  meeting  the  true  ends  of  law  in  the 
point  of  bringing  men  into  intrinsic  righteousness  (v.  4); 
the  righteousness  of  law,  and  the  righteousness  which  is  by 
faith  placed  in  contrast,  and  the  latter  specially  explained 
(v.  5-10);  the  salvation  by  faith  sure  to  those  who  humbly 
call  upon  God  (v.  11-13); — prayerfully  calling  upon  God 
presupposes  hearing  and  preaching  (v.  14, 15) ;  but  many 
Jews  have  heard  who  have  not  yet  believed  (v.  16-18);  the 
reception  of  Gentiles  long  since  predicted  (v.  19-31). 

1.  Brethren,  my  heart's  desire  and  prayer  to  God  for 
Israel  is,  that  they  might  be  saved. 

2.  For  I  bear  them  record  that  they  hare  a  zeal  of 
God,  but  not  according  to  knowledge. 

The  older  manuscripts  read — not  ''  for  Israel "  but 
"  for  them  ;  " — thus  :  "  Brethren  the  good  will  of  my  heart 
and  the  prayer  to  God  for  them  [is]  for  their  salvation." 
Having  occasion  to  say  things  exceedingly  distasteful  to 
their  nationed  pride,  it  was  every  way  pertinent  that  he 
should  express  kind  feelings  and  even  strong  love  for  his 
countrymen. — To  their  credit  I  can  testify  that  they  have 
an  earnest  zeal  for  God.  But  in  sadness  I  am  compelled 
to  say — not  an  intelligent  zeal — but  rather  a  zeal  not  regu- 
lated by  knowledge  of  most  vital  truths. 

3.  For  they,  being  ignorant  of  God's  righteousness, 
and  going  about  to  establish  their  own  righteousness, 
have  not  submitted  themselves  unto  the  righteousness 
of  God.^ 

4.  For  Christ  is  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteous- 
ness to  every  one  that  belicveth. 

''God's  righteousness"  here  in  the  same  sense  as  gen- 
erally throughout  this  epistle  and  particularly  in  its  very 
opening  (1  :  17)  ;  viz.  God's  mode  of  making  men  intrinsi- 


ROMANS— CHAP.  X.  127 

cally  righteous  at  heart,  and  also  of  justifying  them  before 
the  law  through  faith  in  Christ.  The  Jews  being  ignorant 
of  this  mode,  and  seeiving  laboriously  to  establish  a  mode 
of  their  own,  have  not  yielded  their  submission  to  God's 
method.  Enamored  of  their  own  system,  they  have  been 
blind  to  the  moral  beauty  and  unbelieving  as  to  the  truth 
of  God's  far  better  way.  For  they  have  quite  failed  to  see 
that  Christ  accomplishes  the  very  end  sought  by  the  law, 
with  reference  to  every  true  believer.  Of  course  the 
primary  end  of  all  law  is  virtue,  goodness — to  be  secured 
by  inducing  perfect  obedience.  In  Christ  this  perfect 
obedienceis  secured  far  more  surely,  far  more  fully,  under 
the  operation  of  more  effective  principles,  bringing  in  a 
richer,  purer  moral  power.  So  much  in  the  line  of  moral 
transformation  of  character.  Then,  moreover,  for  the 
purpose  of  justification  for  sinners  before  the  law,  Christ 
provides  through  his  atonement  for  the  fullest  and  freest 
pardon  of  sin — a  result  for  which  mere  law  makes  no  pro- 
vision, and  in  its  very  nature  never  can, — Hence  every  re- 
quisite for  salvation  is  provided  perfectly  in  Christ. 

5.  For  Moses  describeth  the  righteousness  which  is 
of  the  law,  That  the  man  which  doeth  those  things  shall 
live  by  them. 

6.  But  the  righteousness  which  is  of  faith  speaketh 
on  this  wise ;  Say  hot  iu  thine  lieart,  Who  shall  ascend 
into  heaven?  (that  is,  to  bring  Christ  down  froin 
above:') 

7.  Or,  "Who  shall  descend  into  the  deep  ?  (that  is,  to 
bring  up  Christ  again  from  the  dead). 

8.  But  what  saith  it  %  The  word  is  nigh  thee,  even 
in  thy  mouth,  and  in  thy  heart :  that  is,  the  word  of  faith, 
which  we  preach ; 

9.  That  if  thou  shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth  the 
Lord  Jesus,  and  shalt  believe  in  thine  heart  that  God 
hath  raised  him  from  the  dead,  thou  shalt  be  saved. 

10.  For  with  the  heart  man  believeth  unto  righteous- 
ness ;  and  with  the  mouth  confession  is  made  unto  sal- 
vation. 

The  close  translation  of  V  5.  is  ;  "  For  Moses  wrote  that 
the  man  who  fulfils  the  righteousness  which  is  of  law  shall 


128  ROMANS— CHAP.  X. 

live  in  it "  i.  e.  by  means  of  it.     Perfect  obedience  ensures 
life — his  highest  well-being. 

Over  against  this,  Paul  presents  in  a  yery  striking  way 
the  righteousness  which  is  reached  through  faith.  He 
comprises  all  in  two  main  things  ;  (a)  Belief  with  the 
heart ;  (b).  Confession  with  the  lips  ; — the  things  believed 
in  being — the  Lord  Jesus  whom  God  hath  raised  from  the 
dead  ;  and  confession  with  the  mouth  being  apparently 
made  prominent  here  as  a  testimony  to  the  sincerity  and 
heartiness  of  this  belief.  It  should  be  remembered  that  in 
those  times  confession  with  the  lips  had  a  significance 
little  known  and  not  easily  over-estimated  now.  Often  it 
carried  with  it  the  loss  of  all  for  Christ. — Very  noticeable  is 
the  stress  laid  upon  ''believing  with  the  heart,''  in  the 
sense  of  most  sincere  belief,  coupled  with  the  thorough 
obedience  of  the  soul  to  the  legitimate  demands  of  the 
truth  believed. 

The  thoughtful  reader  will  ask.; — What  does  Paul  mean 
in  Ys;  6-8  ?  What  bearing  has  all  tliis  upon  the  righteous- 
ness of  faith  ? 

Briefly  put,  I  take  the  answer  to  be  this  :  Paul  wishes  to 
show  that  gospel  faith  is  exceedingly  simple,  and  to  all 
honestly  enquiring  minds,  very  easily  intelligible.  The 
subject  is  not  too  lofty  to  be  understood,  so  that  some  one 
must  needs  ascend  to  heaven  to  bring  down  Christ  to  some 
nearer  point  of  observation  :  it  is  not.  so  profouned  that 
Christ  must  needs  be  brought  up  from  the  great  abyss,  in 
order  to  come  within  the  range  of  human  knowledge  ;  but 
it  is  very  nigh  thee,  close  at  hand,  readily  seen  ;  readily 
comprehended.  This  method  of  setting  forth  things  diffi- 
cult of  apprehension  by  conceiving  them  to  be  in  the  great 
heights  of  heaven  above,  or  in  the  deep  caverns  of  the  earth 
below,  is  a  Jewish  conception.  Paul  found  it  in  Moses 
(Deut.  30  :  11-14)  ; — 'Tor  this  commandment  which  I 
command  thee  this  day  is  not  hidden  from  thee,  neither  is 
it  far  off.  It  is  not  in  heaven  that  thou  shouldst  say ; 
Who  shall  go  up  for  us  to  heaven  to  bring  it  to  us  that  we 
may  hear  it  and  do  it ;  Neither  is  it  beyond  the  sea  that 
thou  shouldst  say ; — Who  shall  go  over  the  sea  for  us  and 
bring  it  unto  us,  that  we  may  hear  it  and  do  it.  But  the 
word  is  very  nigh  unto  thee,  in  tliy  mouth  and  in  thy  heart, 
that  thou  mayest  do  it."  In  one  point  Paul  seems  to  have 
taken  the  liberty  to  change  the  figure,  i.  e.  from  going  over 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  X.  129 

the  great  sea  to  going  down  into  the  great  deep — appa- 
rently to  make  it  suggest  more  naturally  the  bringing  up 
of  Christ  again  from'the  dead.  The  change  is  only  of  the 
letter  ;  not  of  the  spirit. 

Now  as  to  the  point  of  this  illustration,  nothing  can  be 
more  clear.  It  is  Just  this — that  believing  in  Christ  is  a 
pei'fedly  simple  thing ;  has  in  it  nothing  mysterious, 
nothing  abstruse  and  incomprehensible  ;  is  a  matter  Avhich 
a  very  child  may  understand.  It  is  very  nigh  thee,  in  thy 
mouth  and  in  thy  heart — this  doctrine  of  faith  which  we 
preach.  It  is  but  to  confess  the  Lord  Jesus  as  the  prom- 
ised Messiah,  the  proffered  Redeemer  of  men,  and  with 
thy  heart  believe  on  him  for  the  salvation  he  comes  to 
bring  ; — that  is  all.  You  receive  him  for  what  he  is  ;  you 
accept  him  as  to  all  he  brings  to  you  ;  you  give  him  your 
heart  and  your  life.  You  trust  him  as  your  Saviour. 
This  is  believing  unto  righteousness ;  the  result  of  such 
faith  is  salvation  from  sin  in  the  heart  and  also  salvation 
from  the  curse  of  the  broken  law.  Jesus  sanctifies  ;  Jesus 
justifies.  In  the  final  result,  Jesus  glorifies.  There  is 
nothing  beyond  these  that  human  souls  can  need. 

11,  For  the  Scripture  saith,  "Whosoever  belie veth  on 
him  shall  not  be  ashamed. 

12,  For  there  is  no  difference  between  the  Jew  and 
the  Greek :  for  the  same  Lord  over  all  is  rich  unto  all 
that  call  upon  him, 

13,  For  whosoever  shall  call  upon  the  name  of  the 
Lord  shall  be  saved. 

These  verses  meet  the  question  supposably  put  by  the 
Pharisaic  Jew  ; — Do  you  really  undertake  to  say  that  so 
simple  a  thing  as  believing  with  the  heart  on  Christ  will 
save  the  soul  ? — Indeed  I  do — Paul  answers — for  the  Scrip- 
ture hath  said — "  No  one  who  believeth  on  him  (Christ) 
shall  ever  be  put  to  shame  "  (Isa,  28  :  16.)  [See  the  same 
quotation  back  in  9  :  33].  [Paul  quotes  here  from  the 
Septuagint].  The  question  may  be  raised  whether  Isaiah 
said  these  words  of  the  nation's  Messiah.  I  see  no  good 
reason  to  doubt  that  he  did.  [See  my  Notes  on  the  pas- 
sage]. Yet  even  if  Isaiah  had  no  immediate  reference  to 
the  Messiah,  the  quotation  is  still  good  authority  for  Paul ; 
because  faith  in  God's  existence,  love,  and  providence  under 


130  ROMANS.— CHAP.  X. 

the  Old  Testament  dispensation  is  essentially  the  same 
thing  as  faith  in  Christ  under  the  New.  In  the  former, 
no  trusting  one  was  ever  put  to  shame  ;  and  for  the  same 
reason  the  same  must  be  true  in  the  latter. 

All  this  applies — Paul  proceeds  to  say — to  Jew  and  to 
Greek  alike  ;  for  G-od  makes  no  difference  between  men  on 
the  score  of  nationality.  The  same  Lord  over  all  is  rich 
[in  mercy]  toward  all  who  call  upon  him — a  fact  of  which 
he  brings  proof  from  the  prophet  (Joel  2  :  33) — who  cer- 
tainly looked  down  into  the  Gospel  age,  and  whose  words 
seem  to  have  breathed  the  inspirations  of  spiritual  power 
into  the  souls  of  the  Apostles  at  the  great  Pentecost — to 
which  they  so  definitely  refer. 

14:.  How  then  shall  they  call  on  him  in  whom  they 
have  not  believed  ?  and  how  shall  they  believe  in  him  of 
whom  they  have  not  heard?  and  how  shall  they  hear 
without  a  preacher  ? 

15.  And  how  shall  they  preach,  except  they  be  sent? 
as  it  is  written.  How  beautiful  are  the  feet  of  them  that 
preach  the  gospel  of  peace,  and  bring  glad  tidings  of  good 
things ! 

It  does  not  materially  affect  the  sense  whether  we  take 
these  verses  as  the  words  of  a  supposed  objector,  or  as  Paul's 
own. 

In  the  former  case,  thus  : — You  have  reduced  the 
conditions  of  salvation  by  faith  to  one  very  simple  thing, 
viz.  calling  on  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  But  it  still 
remains  to  ask  ;  How  can  men  call  on  One  in  Avhom  they 
have  not  believed  ?  How  can  they  believe  in  One  of  whom 
they  have  heard  nothing  ?  How  can  they  hear  until 
some  one  shall  speak,  making  the  proclamation  ?  And  how 
shall  men  make  this  gospel  proclamation — as  apostles — ex- 
cept they  be  sent  forth  ?  But  this  chain  of  questions  bears 
so  directly  upon  the  commission  of  the  apostles  to  preach 
Christ  that  it  may  best  be  attributed  to  Paul  himself — rais- 
ing the  questions,  for  himself  to  answer. — Then,  in  v.  15. 
the  series  culminates  in  a  passage  from  Isaiah  (53  :  7) 
which  suggested  by  the  analogous  glad  tidings  of  a  nearer 
deliverance,  looks  down  into  the  gospel  age  for  a  more  re- 
mote one  whose  messengers  of  glad  tidings  bring  the  real 
gospel  message. 


ROMANS.-CHAP.  X.  131 

16.  But  they  have  not  all  obeyed  the  gospel.  For 
Esaias  saith,  Lord,  who  hath  believed  our  report  ? 

IT.  So  then  faith  cometh  by  hearing,  and  hearing  by 
the  word  of  God. 

Easy  and  simple  as  the  gospel  scheme  is,  it  is  yet  a  sad 
fact  that  many  of  my  beloved  countrymen  who  have  heard, 
have  yet  not  obeyed.  This  very  fact  was  predicted  by  Isaiah 
in  a  passage  which  most  remarkably  puts  its  prediction  of 
the  gospel  age  into  historic  form  and  makes  the  gospel 
preacher  testify  ; — "  Lord,  who  hath  believed  our  gospel 
message  ?  "  (Isa.  53  :  1).  Faith  does  indeed  come  by  hearing 
and  hearing  by  the  word  of  God ;  but  unbelief  shuts  off 
multitudes  who  yet  have  had  every  facihty  forbearing  and 
believing  unto  everlasting  life. 

18.  But  I  say,  Have  they  not  heard?  Yes  verily, 
their  sound  went  into  all  the  earth,  and  their  words  unto 
the  ends  of  the  world. 

The  objector  is  again  present  in  Paul's  thought,  com- 
plaining,— But  our  people  have  not  heard  the  gospel  ! — 
Paul  replies,  Lideed  they  have.  Multitudes — perhaps  lie 
means  to  imply,  the  masses — have  heard,  or  might  have 
heard  if  only  they  would. 

Noticeably  Paul's  words  appear  in  Ps.  19:  2  ;  but  Paul 
does  not  appeal  to  them  as  scripture  authority  to  the  point 
he  is  making.  lie  simply  takes  the  words  as  fitly  expres- 
sing his  sentiments,  as  if  be  would  say. — This  gospel  word 
sounded  forth  over  all  Judea  and  to  the  ends  of  the  earth 
even  as  the  witnessing  testimony  of  the  heavens  declaring 
the  glory  of  God  goes  forth  all  abroad  with  the  light  of  his 
sun  in  the  heavens. 

19.  But  I  say,  Did  not  Israel  know?  First  Moses 
saith,  I  will  provoke  you  to  jealousy  by  them  that  are  no 
people,  and  by  a  foolish  nation  I  will  anger  you. 

20.  But  Esaias  is  very  bold  and  saith,  I  was  found  of 
them  that  sought  me  not;  I  was  made  manifest  unto 
them  that  asked  not  after  nie. 

21.  But  to  Israel  he  saith,  All  day  long  I  have 
stretched  forth  my  hands  unto  a  disobedient  and  gain- 
saying people. 

The  objector  may  be  supposed   to  put  another  point 


132  ROMANS.— CHAP.  X. 

here  ;  viz.  that  this  doctrine  of  the  calling  of  Gentiles 
is  new — sprung  npon  our  nation  all  suddenly  and  ex- 
tremely to  our  disgust,  repelling  many  of  our  good  people 
from  believing  in  Christ. — To  which  Paul  answers  ; — Do 
you  say  that  this  is  new  doctrine  ?  Look  into  your  own 
prophecies,  even  through  Moses  (first  of  all)  (Deut.  32:  21) 
the  Lord  said  : — ''I  will  provoke  you  to  jealousy  by  those 
whom  you  now  regard  as  nobody." — Your  own  Isaiah  is 
scill  more  bold  : — "  I  was  found  of  them  that  through  the 
long  ages  of  the  past  had  never  sought  me"  (65:  1);  but  of 
Israel  lie  said — "All  the  day  long  have  I  stretched  forth 
my  hands  to  a  people  unbelieving  and  gainsaying"  (G5:2). — 
If  then  this  prevalent  unbelief  of  Jews  and  this  calling  in 
of  Gentiles  are  both  delicate,  critical,  offensive  points  to 
you,  there  is  my  authority  in  your  own  scriptures.  The 
facts  are  painful  to  you  I  know  ;  but  how  can  you  deny 
their  truth  ? 


-(^On- 


CH AFTER    XI. 

The  tone  of  this  chapter  is  consolatory  and  hopeful  as 
to  the  Jews,  for  God  has  not  cast  them  away  utterly  and 
forever  (v.  1-4) — a  remnant  are  being  saved  even  now 
through  the  election  of  grace  (v.  5,  6)  ;  the  kind  of  right- 
eousness, which  they  have  sought,  they  have  failed  to  attain, 
and,  rejecting  Christ,  they  have  been  left  to  their  blind  in- 
fatuation (v.  7-10)  ;  their  fall  opened  the  way  for  the  con- 
version of  the  Gentiles  ;  much  more  will  their  recovery  be 
life  from  the  dead  to  the  Gentile  world  (v.  11-16) ;  Gentiles 
admonished  against  pride  (v.  17-21);  God's  goodness  and 
severity  are  both  illustrated  (v.  22-24) ;  continued  blind- 
ness will  rest  on  Israel  until  the  fullness  of  the  Gentiles  is 
brought  in  ;  and  then  all  Israel  shall  be  saved  (v.  25-29)  ; 
how  God  turns  to  account  the  guilty  unbelief  of  Jews  to 
effect  the  conversion  of  Gentiles  (v.  30-32) ;  Avhereupon 
Paul  extols  the  depth  of  the  riches,  wisdom  and  knowledge 
of  God  and  ascribes  to  Him  all  glory  forever. 

1.  I  say  then,  Hath  God  cast  away  his  people?     God 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XI.  133 

forbid.     For  I  also  am  an  Israelite,  of  tlie  seed  of  xYbra- 
ham,  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin. 

2.  God  bath  not  cast  away  his  people  which  he  fore- 
knew. Wot  je  not  what  the  Scriptnre  saith  of  Elias  % 
how  he  maketh  intercession  to  God  against  Israel,  say- 
ing, 

3.  Lord,  they  have  killed  thy  prophets,  and  digged 
down  thine  altars ;  and  I  am  left  alone,  and  they  seek 
my  life. 

4.  But  what  saith  the  answer  of  God  unto  him?  I 
have  reseiwed  to  myself  seven  thousand  men,  who  have 
not  bowed  the  knee  to  the  image  of  Baal. 

The  point  of  this  qviestion  turns  upon  the  strong  signifi- 
cance of  the  verb  ^^  cast  moay  ;'^ — Hath  God  cast  them 
away  utterly  and  forever,  past  all  reversal  or  even  allevia- 
tion ?  No  verily  ;  let  not  this  be  supposed  !  My  own 
case  proves  what  I  say.  One  exception,  especially  of  such 
a  sinner  as  I.  suffices  to  show  that  God  can  yet  have  mercy 
on  the  sons  of  Israel. — The  deep  depression  that  came  upon 
Elijah — almost  to  the  point  of  despair — drew  forth  an  an- 
swer from  the  Lord  which  holds  good  still  for  all  his  dis- 
couraged people,  of  small  faith  ;  Know  ye  not  what  the 
scripture  saith  in  the  passage  about  Elijah  (1.  Kings  19: 
10-18) —  how  he  "  made  intercession  with  God  against 
Israel,"  and  God  assured  him  he  "  had  even  then  seven  thou- 
sand men  in  reserve  who  had  never  bent  the  knee  to  Baal  ?  " 
— If  there  were  at  the  date  of  Paul's  writing  some  honest 
souls  in  Israel,  oppressed  with  the  apparent  hopelessness  of 
their  nation's  destiny,  these  words  must  have  been  exceed- 
ingly pertinent  toward  hope. 

5.  Even  so  then  at  this  present  time  also  there  is  a 
remnant  according  to  the  election  of  grace. 

6.  And  if  by  grace,  then  is  it  no  more  of  works : 
otherwise  grace  is  no  more  grace.  But  if  it  he  of  works, 
then  is  it  no  more  grace:  otherwise  work  is  no  more 
work. 

A  remnant  of  Israel  even  then  remained  for  God — this 
fact  being  not  due  to  their  works  of  righteousness  but  to 
the  riches  of  God's  mercy.  As  a  nation  they  had  sought 
acceptance  before  God  on  the  basis  of  their  Avorks — only  to 


134  EOMANS.-CHAP.  XI. 

fail  utterly.     But  on  the  score  of  divine  mercy,  a  remnant 
had  been  called  and  saved. 

7.  What  then  ?  Israel  hath  not  obtained  that  which 
he  seeketh  for :  but  the  election  hath  obtained  it,  and  the 
rest  were  blinded, 

8.  (According  as  it  is  written,  God  hath  given  them 
the  spirit  of  slumber,  eyes  that  they  should  not  see,  and 
cars  that  they  should  not  hear ;)  unto  this  day, 

9.  And  David  saith,  Let  their  table  be  made  a  snare, 
and  a  trap,  and  a  stumblingblock,  and  a  recompense  unto 
them : 

10.  Let  their  eyes  be  darkened,  that  they  may  not 
see,  and  bow  down  their  back  alway. 

The  same  sentiment  is  reiterated  here  ; — Israel  not  at 
all  obtaining  the  salvation  they  sought,  by  means  of  meri- 
torious works  ; — only  the  elect  few  obtaining  this  salvation 
and  they  on  the  ground  of  mercy  alone  ; — the  rest  being 
given  up  to  their  guilty  infatuation — to  illustrate  which 
Paul  quotes  Isa.  29: 10,  and  Ps.  G9:  22,  23. 

11.  I  say  then,  Have  they  stumbled  that  they  should 
fall  ?  God  forbid :  but  rather  through  their  fall  salva- 
tion is  come  nnto  the  Gentiles,  for  to  provoke  them  to 
jealousy. 

12.  JSTow  if  the  fall  of  them  he  the  riches  of  the  world, 
and  the  diminishing  of  them  the  riches  of  the  Gentiles : 
how  much  more  their  fullness  ? 

13.  For  I  speak  to  you  Gentiles,  inasmuch  as  I  am 
the  apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  I  magnify  mine  office : 

14.  If  by  any  means  I  may  provoke  to  emulation 
them  which  are  my  flesh,  and  might  save  some  of  them. 

15.  For  if  the  casting  away  of  them  he  the  reconcil- 
ing of  the  world,  what  shall  the  receiving  of  them  he,  but 
life  from  the  dead? 

16.  For  if  the  first  fruit  he  holy,  the  lump  is  also 
holy :  and  if  the  root  he  holy,  so  are  the  branches. 

What  are  the  divinely  purposed  results  of  this  fall  of 
the  Jews  through  their  national  unbelief  ?  What  inciden- 
tal good  does  the  Lord  educe  from  it  ?  Did  it  contemplate 
their  utter  ruin  and  nothing  else  ? 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XL  135 

Nay  verily  ; — away  with  that  thought !  Rather,  it 
has  been  God's  purpose  through  their  fall  to  bring  salva- 
tion to  the  Gentiles — this  moreover  to  react  ultimately  upon 
Jews  by  way  of  emulation,  to  stimulate  them  thus  to  receive 
the  gospel. — The  histoi-y  of  Paul's  gospellabors  alone  shows 
abundantly  that  the  unbelief  of  the  Jews  availed  toward 
giving  the  gospel  to  the  Gentiles ; — for  uniformly  Paul 
turned  away  from  his  unbelieving  countrymen  to  preach 
the  gospel  successfully  to  the  Gentiles — (and  they  received 
it). — At  the  same  time  it  seems  to  have  been  his  hope  and 
expectation  that  the  manifold  and  manifest  blessings  which 
came  to  Gentiles  through  receiving  the  gospel  would  in 
due  time  open  Jewish  eyes  to  the  preciousness  of  the  gos- 
pel and  Jewish  hearts  to  its  reception. 

In  V.  12  Paul  moves  on  logically  to  other  and  larger 
results.  If  the  fall  of  the  Jews  becomes  the  enriching  of 
the  Gentile  world,  and  their  loss — their  impoverishment — 
becomes  riches  to  the  Gentile  nations,  by  how  much  more 
shall  their  fulness  [their  final  and  general  reception  of  the 
gospel]  bring  glory  to  the  Gentile  world  !  I  say  this  for 
its  bearing  upon  you,  Gentiles,  inasmuch  as  I  am  an  Apos- 
tle of  the  Gentiles.  God  having  made  this  my  special  mis- 
sion (Acts  26:  17,  18),  I  glorify  my  office.  I  delight  to 
bring  out  the  richness  of  God's  plans  of  mercy  toward  Gen- 
tiles, if  by  any  means  I  may  provoke  my  kindred  to  emula- 
tion, and  thus  save  some  of  them.  For  if  their  rejection 
because  of  their  national  unbelief  enured  to  the  reconciling 
of  the  Gentiles,  what  shall  their  reception  again  be  but  life 
from  the  dead  ? 

This  phrase — "  life  from  the  dead  " — I  must  take  in  its 
figurative  sense — the  figure  coming  from  the  vital  forces 
which  spring  up  out  of  the  death,  the  decomposition  of 
seed — a  fact  in  nature  beautifully  significant  of  power 
generated  out  of  death  for  the  purposes  of  new  and  glorious 
life.  Compare  its  use  by  our  Lord  (John  12:  24) — a  case 
which  may  have  been  in  Paul's  mind.  The  point  upon 
which  this  figure  bears  is  the  revivifying  of  gospel  energy 
upon  the  wide  world,  to  result  from  the  great  ingathering 
of  God's  ancient  Israel. 

The  doctrine  of  v.  IG  would  then  be  ; — If  the  first 
results  of  God's  plan  are  rich,  effective,  glorious — so  and 
much  more  will  its  ultimate  results  be.  If  the  rejection 
of  Jews  brought  on  the  great  conversion  of  Gentiles,  much 


136  ROMANS.— CHAP.  XI. 

more  will  their  reception  into  God's  kingdom  bring  uew 
life  to  Zion  ! 

"  The  first  fruits  "  wore  a  small  portion  of  the  dough, 
set  apart  for  a  thank-offering.*  These  were  of  course  a 
specimen  of  the  mass — of  the  same  character,  and  serving 
to  show  what  the  body  of  the  mass  would  be.  So  the 
nature  of  the  root  passed  into  the  branch  and  served  to  fix 
its  true  character. 

The  logical  application  of  v.  16,  I  take  to  be — If  the 
first  results  of  God's  plan  are  so  pure  and  so  grand,  not  less 
so  will  the  last  results — upon  the  mass — prove  ultimately 
to  be.  The  small  specimen  we  see  now  will  not  deceive 
us. 

The  clause — ''life  from  the  dead,"  some  critics  take  in 
its  literal  sense — the  resui'rection  of  the  body.  They  un- 
derstand Paul  to  teach  here  that  this  final  resurrection  will 
follow  close  upon  the  ultimate  conversion  of  the  Jews. 
But  to  this  construction  there  are  grave  objections  ; — e.g. 
that  this  idea  is  entirely  aside  from  Paul's  course  of  thought 
in  this  chapter,  not  the  least  allusion  to  it  elsewhere  being 
apparent ;  and  the  whole  drift  of  his  argument  being  to- 
ward the  effectiveness  of  God's  scheme  for  the  moral  regen- 
eration of  the  world,  Jew  and  Gentile  :  also  that  the  figura- 
tive sense  is  pertinent,  forcible,  unobjectionable. 

17.  And  if  some  of  the  branches  be  broken  off,  and 
thon,  being  a  wild  olive  tree,  wert  grafted  in  among  them, 
and  with  them  partakest  of  the  root  and  fatness  of  the 
olive  tree ; 

18.  Boast  not  against  the  branches.  But  if  thou 
boast,  thou  bearest  not  the  root,  but  the  root  thee. 

19.  Thou  wilt  say  then,  The  branches  were  broken 
off,  that  I  might  be  graffed  in. 

20.  "Well ;  because  of  unbelief  they  were  broken  off, 
and  thou  standest  by  faith.  Be  not  highminded,  but 
fear: 

21.  For  if  God  spared  not  the  natural  branches,  to7t<3 
heed  lest  he  also  spare  not  thee. 

This  playing  upon  the  quick  sensibilities  of  human  souls, 

*  See  Num.  15  :  20  where  the  Septuagint  brings  together  Paul's 
two  words — "  first  fruits"  and  "  lump,"  i.  e.  the  mass  of  dough  of 
which  the  first  fruits  were  a  small  portion. 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XI.  137 

and  especially  upon  strong  national  feelings  and  prejudices, 
was  a  very  delicate  operation — of  which  fact  Paul's  deep 
insight  into  human  nature  gave  him  a  keen  perception. — 
To  magnify  his  office  in  behalf  of  Gentiles,  he  has  been 
directing  his  arguments  to  them  (v.  13  and  onward)  his 
purpose  being  to  inspire  them  to  improve  to  the  utmost 
their  present  opportunity  to  come  into  God's  kingdom  by 
the  engrafting  process  ; — but  suddenly  a  new  danger  sug- 
gests itself  to  his  mind — that  of  spiritual  pride  in  Gentile 
souls,  in  view  of  the  new  distinction  they  are  attaining  in 
Zion.  Put  in  as  a  new  graft  among  the  old  branches  and 
taking  on  a  fresh  youthful  vigor  (a  fact  well  known  to 
nurserymen) — throwing  the  old  stock  quite  into  the  shade, 
they  are  under  temptation  to  boast  against  the  old  branches. 
Let  them  remember,  they  ai*e  not  upholding  the  root  but 
the  root  them.  Again,  let  not  their  proud  heart  say  ;  The 
old  branches  were  broken  off  to  give  me  a  place  as  a  thing 
of  better  quality  and  of  fresher  vigor.  Let  them  remem- 
ber the  Jew  lost  his  place  by  his  unbelief  ;  they  could  hold 
theirs  only  by  faith,  coupled  with  modest  humility.  Let 
them  beware;  ''If  God  spared  not  the  natural  branches, 
he  will  not  spare  thee."  So  the  older  textual  authorities 
read  the  last  clause,  very  explicitly — "  He  will  not  spare 
thee."  Proud  unbelief  would  forfeit  God's  favor  in  your 
case  as  surely  and  as  suddenly  as  in  the  case  of  the  Jew. 

This  figure — grafting  new,  improved  varieties  upon  old 
standards — is  in  many  points  exquisitively  pertinent  to  the 
case  Paul  has  in  hand — the  introduction  of  Gentile  shoots 
into  the  decaying  Jewish  trunk. — "Graff"  in  our  Auth. 
version  for  "graft,"  is  now  obsolete. 

22.  Behold  therefore  the  goodness  and  severity  of 
God :  on  them  which  fell,  severity ;  but  toward  thee, 
goodness,  if  thou  continue  in  Jiis  goodness :  otherwise 
thou  also  slialt  be  cut  off. 

23.  And  they  also,  if  they  abide  not  still  in  unbelief, 
shall  be  grafled  in :  for  God  is  able  to  graff  them  in  again. 

24.  For  if  thou  wert  cut  out  of  the  olive  tree 
which  is  wild  by  nature,  and  wert  graffed  contrary 
to  nature  into  a  good  olive  tree  ;  how  much  more  shall 
these,  whicli  be  the  natural  hranches,  be  graffed  into 
their  own  olive  tree  ? 


138  ROMANS.— CHAP.  XI. 

The  case  illustrates  two  distinct  and  in  a  sort  contrasted 
qualities  in  the  divine  character  ;  his  "goodness,"  and  his 
'•'severity," — the  latter  word  signifying  rather  that  firm- 
ness of  nerve  which  holds  with  steady  hand  and  uses  with 
nnflinching  purpose  the  surgeon's  knife  when  he  must. 
[Gr.  apotomia]. — Toward  those  that  fall  through  unbelief, 
severity  in  this  sense  ;  toward  thee,  the  Gentile,  goodness 
if  thou  continue  in  that  good  moral  state  which  is  in  sym- 
pathy with  God's  kindness  and  grace  to  thee.  Otherwise — 
i.e.  in  case  thou  dost  not  continue  in  that  state,  thou  too 
shalt  be  cut  off.  So  also,  if  the  Jews  turn  to  God  from  their 
unbelief,  they  shall  be  grafted  in  again.  God  is  infinitely 
able  to  do  this  ;  indeed  it  is  specially  according  to  nature — 
a  most  natural  thing  to  be  done — to  re-engraft  them  into 
their  own  original  olive  tree.  It  must  be  a  special  gratifi- 
cation to  the  God  of  the  old  patriarchs  and  prophets  to 
bring  back  their  far  remote  descendants  from  their  long 
estrangement  of  unbelief  into  the  Zion  of  their  earliest 
forefathers. 

25.  For  I  would  not,  brethren,  that  ye  should  be  igno- 
rant of  this  mystery,  lest  ye  should  be  wise  in  your  own 
conceits,  that  blindness  in  part  is  happened  to  Israel, 
until  the  fulness  of  the  Gentiles  be  come  in. 

20.  And  so  all  Israel  shall  be  saved :  as  it  is  written, 
There  shall  come  out  of  Sion  the  Deliverer,  and  shall 
turn  away  ungodliness  from  Jacob  : 

27.  For  this  is  my  covenant  unto  them,  when  I  shall 
take  away  their  sins. 

28.  As  concerning  the  gosj)el  they  are  enemies  for 
your  sakes  :  but  as  touching  the  election,  they  are  beloved 
for  the  fathers'  sakes. 

29.  For  the  gifts  and  calling  of  God  are  without 
repentance. 

The  '"brethren"  specially  addressed  here  are  Gentiles, 
as  in  V.  13  and  onward  to  this  point. — The  truth  now  to 
be  presented,  called  a  "  mystery"  because  long  mostly  un- 
known, Paul  is  specially  desirous  they  should  understand. 
It  is  not  only  a  glorious  truth  in  itself,  but  might  be  par- 
ticularly useful  to  them  to  abate  their  danger  of  self- 
conceit.  It  would  show  Gentile  Christians  that  the  Lord 
had  great  plans  of  mercy  for  the  Jews  as  a  whole  people. 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XI.  139 

Therefore  they  need  not  conceive  of  themselves  as  destined 
thenceforward  to  bear  alone  the  distinction  and  glory  of 
being  the  people  of  God. 

The  great  truth  referred  to  was  that  partial  blindness 
in  unbelief  had  befallen  Israel  and  would  abide  upon  them 
until  the  fulness  of  the  Gentiles  should  be  brought  into 
God's  kingdom  ; — then,  so,  upon  this  plan,  all  Israel  should 
be  saved — according  to  those  words  of  Isaiah  [59  :  20]  : — 
"The  Deliverer  shall  go  forth  from  Zion  and  shall  turn 
away  ungodliness  from  Jacob.  And  this  is  the  covenant 
with  them  from  me  when  I  shall  take  away  their  sin." — 
In  this  quotation  Paul  follows  closely  the  Septuagint  which 
differs  slightly  from  the  Hebrew  and  from  our  Auth.  ver- 
sion— the  latter  being — "  Unto  them  that  turn  from  trans- 
gression in  Jacob  " — i.  e.  shall  come  unto  those  in  Jacob 
who  turn  from  their  transgressions  : — while  Paul  (with  the 
Septuagint)  makes  more  prominent  the  active  agency  of 
God  in  turning  them  from  their  transgressions.  The  De- 
liverer shall  come  to  Zion  and  shall  do  precisely  this — shall 
turn  the  whole  people  of  Jacob  from  their  sin. 

The  allusion  to  "  my  covenant "  (v.  27)  may  possibly  be 
to  the  same  passage  of  Isaiah  (59  :  21)  in  which  we  read — 
*'As  for  me,  this  is  my  covenant  with  them  saith  the 
Lord  :  My  Spirit  that  is  upon  thee  and  my  word  which  I 
have  put  in  thy  mouth,  shall  not  depart,"  etc.  This  is 
plainly  a  promise  of  Messianic  blessings,  yet  the  special 
point  made  is  the  gift  of  the  Spirit. 

The  allusion  may,  however,  be  to  the  '"'new  covenant" 
which  stands  on  record  Jer.  31  :  31-34,  and  is  brought  out 
most  fully  in  Heb.  8 — this  being  in  every  point  appropri- 
ate to  Paul's  purpose,  meeting  all  the  exigencies  of  his  allu- 
sion— (-''when  I  shall  take  away  their  sin") — and  of  his 
entire  argument.  '•'  Behold  the  days  come  that  I  will  make 
a  new  covenant  with  the  House  of  Israel,  viz.  this  ; — ''  I 
will  put  my  law  in  their  inward  parts  and  write  it  in  their 
hearts,  and  I  will  be  their  God  and  they  shall  be  my  peo- 
ple ;  and  they  shall  teach  no  more  every  man  his  neighbor, 
saying.  Know  the  Lord  ;  for  they  shall  all  Jcnoiv  me  from 
the  least  of  them  unto  the  greatest  of  them,  saith  the  Lord  ; 
— for  I  will  forgive  their  iniquity  and  I  will  remember  their 
sin  no  more." — These  last  words  seem  to  identify  this  pas- 
sage from  Jeremiah  as  the  one  to  which  Paul  alluded. 

Kevcrtinsr  to  the  srcat  truth  here  brought  forth  from 


140  ROMANS. -CHAP.  XI. 

its  hiding-place  of  "mystery,"  we  must  note  that  it  is  pre- 
cisely Paul's  inspired  interpretation  of  Isaiah's  and  Jere- 
miah's prophecies  on  the  point  of  the  future  conversion  of 
Jews  and  Gentiles  ;  and  makes  these  well  defined  points  : 

1.  That  the  then  existing  unbelief  of  Israel  would  con- 
tinue upon  them  as  a  nation  for  yet  a  season  ; 

2.  That  it  would  end  and  give  place  to  gospel  faith 
^vhen  the  mass  of  the  Gentiles  should  become  converted  to 
Christ ; 

3.  That  consequently  the  conversion  of  the  Gentile  world 
is  certainly  in  the  plan  of  God,  the  fulness  of  their  conver- 
sion being  the  ripened  result  of  the  work  already  in  pro- 
gress, of  which  Paul  was  under  God  an  apostle. 

4.  Finally,  that  when  the  fulness  of  Gentile  conversion 
should  have  "been  accomplished,  all  Israel  sliould  he  saved 
— in  proof  of  which  he  finds  predictions  in  both  Isaiah  and 
Jeremiah  which  are  entirely  explicit,  and  are  strong  and 
unqualified  as  human  words  can  make. 

The  candid  reader  will  have  no  need  of  the  suggestion 
that  this  passage  shows  decisively  how  Paul  interpreted 
the  ancient  Messianic  prophecies  of  Christ's  earthly  king- 
dom, and  of  the  final  triumphs  of  the  gospel. 

In  V.  28,  Paul  looks  to  the  present  bearings  of  these 
features  in  the  plan  of  God.  In  respect  to  the  diffusion  of 
the  gospel,  the  Jews  took  the  attitude  of  hostility,  for  the 
good  of  the  Gentiles,  their  hostile  unbelief  being  over- 
ruled of  God  to  the  more  extensive  convex'sion  of  the  Gen- 
tiles ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  as  the  result  of  God's  elect- 
ing love  to  their  fathers  (the  ancient  patriarchs)  they  were 
beloved,  and  should  ultimately  be  brought  back  to  God. 
For  the  gifts  and  the  gospel  call  of  God  are  changeless  ; 
they  stand  forever  of  old  and  onAvard  to  the  end  of  time. 

30.  For  as  ye  in  times  past  liave  not  believed  God, 
yet  have  now  obtained  mercy  through  their  unbelief : 

31.  Even  so  have  tliese  also  now  not  believed,  that 
through  your  mercy  they  also  may  obtain  mercy. 

32.  For  God  hath  concluded  them  all  in  unbelief, 
that  he  might  have  mercy  upon  all. 

These  verses  essentially  repeat  the  points  already  made 
in  reference  to  the  incidental  purposes  and  results  of 
God's  scheme.     As  ve  Gentiles  were  through  long  ages  in 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XI.  14:1 

disobedient  unbelief  toward  God  but  have  now  found 
mercy  as  a  remote  result  of  Jewish  unbelief  ;  so  these  Jews 
are  now  unbelieving  so  that  through  mercy  sliown  you  they 
may  now  obtain  mercy.  For  God  has  shut  up  all  in  un- 
belief ;  first  the  Gentiles  :  last  the  Jews  ;  that  in  the  final 
result  he  may  have  mercy  upon  all.  It  is  a  wonderful 
scheme — this  over-ruling  the  unbelief  of  the  Jew  for  the 
salvation  of  the  Gentile,  and  then  making  this  mercy  shown 
the  Gentile  a  moral  force  toward  the  salvation  of  the  Jew. 
— So  it  is  once  more  made  decisively  clear  that,  in  Paul's 
thought,  the  ultimate  result  of  the  gospel  scheme  upon  the 
race  will  be  that  GocVs  7nercy  comes  upon  all — in  the  day 
of  fulfilled  prophecy,  when  all  that  the  great  love  of  God 
has  moved  him  to  plan  and  to  accomplish  shall  be  com- 
plete, and  both  Gentile  and  Jew  shall  "know  the  Lord 
from  the  least  to  the  greatest." 

33.  O  the  deptli  of  the  riches  both  of  the  wisdom 
and  knowledge  of  God  !  how  unsearchable  are  his  judg- 
ments, and  his  ways  past  finding  out ! 

34.  For  who  hath  known  the  mind  of  the  Lord?  or 
who  hath  been  his  counsellor  ? 

35.  Or  who  hath  first  given  to  him,  and  it  shall  be 
recompensed  unto  him  again  ? 

36.  For  of  him,  and  through  him,  and  to  him,  are  all 
things ;  to  whom  he  glory  forever.     Amen. 

The  full  heart  of  the  apostle  pours  forth  its  admiration 
of  God  in  these  memorable  words.  All  God's  plans — long 
mysterious  ;  long  unfathomed  by  human  thought ;  long 
dark  and  perplexing — at  last  culminate  in  victory  for  truth 
and  righteousness — victory  for  Zion  and  her  King  !  The 
unbelief  which  seemed  so  impregnable,  so  deadly  hostile 
to  the  gospel's  progress,  and  as  related  to  God's  plan  for 
the  world's  redemption,  so  difficult  for  human  wisdom  to 
account  for,  is  forced  at  last  to  lend  its  utmost  moral  force 
to  hasten  the  grand  consummation  and  to  make  it  perfect 
and  all-glorious. 

Oh  the  depth  of  the  riches,  of  the  wisdom  and  of  the 
knowledge  of  God  !  How  unsearchable  are  his  judgments 
(this  word  in  the  sense  of  plans  of  operation) ;  how  un- 
traceable his  ways ! 

Paul's  words  seem  really  to  make  three  distinct  points. 


142  ROMANS.— CHAP.  XI. 

and  not  (as  our  Auth.  version)  but  two — viz.  riches  («'.  e. 
grace)  ;  wisdom ;  knowledge.  The  great  depth  of  each 
and  of  all  these  qualities  is  the  theme  of  his  irrepressible 
admiration.  His  thought  is  mainly  upon  wisdom  and 
knowledge  as  evinced  in  the  marvellous  skill  and  resources 
of  God's  moral  scheme  of  redemption.  This  appears  in 
the  argument  that  follows  : — -for  who  has  ever  known  (fully 
fathomed)  the  7nind — the  infinite  intelligence — of  God  ? 
"  Who  has  been  his  counsellor,"  to  give  him  advice  and  to 
aid  him  in  framing  these  wise  plans  ?  Who  has  given  to 
him  any  new  thought,  so  that  God  has  come  under  obliga- 
tion to  reward  him  for  his  wise  suggestion  ? 

Because  forth  from  Him  as  Creator  come  all  things 
great  and  good  ;  through  Him  by  virtue  of  his  perpetual 
efficiency  are  all  things  ;  unto  Him  as  their  final  end  are 
all  things  made  to  bear  : — therefore  unto  him  be  all  glory 
forever  :  Amen. 

To  this  consummation,  full  of  infinite  reason  and  of 
ineffable  sublimity,  Paul's  conception  of  God's  ways  in  the 
great  scheme  of  human  salvation  have  brought  him. 


CHAPTERXII. 

The  second  part  of  this  great  epistle  commences  here 
— the  first  part,  devoted  to  gospel  truth — the  great  doc- 
trines which  are  unto  salvation,  closing  with  the  previous 
chapter.  Here  therefore  Paul  opens  the  practical  part, 
bearing  upon  the  various  duties  of  the  Christian  life. 

Sensibly  and  most  pertinently,  all  christian  life  begins 
with  supreme  consecration  to  the  service  of  God  (v.  1)  ;  in- 
volving the  solemn  purpose  and  the  earnest  endeavor  to 
conform  both  the  spirit  and  the  life — not  to  the  world,  but 
to  the  perfect  will  of  God  (v.  3),  Against  undue  self-esteem 
and  unto  the  doing  each  of  his  own  several  duties  (v.  3-5). 
As  the  gifts  of  grace  are  various,  let  each  devote  his  own 
gifts  and  talents  to  the  service  of  God  (v. 6-8).  Exhorta- 
tion to  love  and  to  all  forms  of  well  doing  (v.  9-17)  ;  to 
living  peaceably  and  in  kindness  toward  even  enemies 
(v.  18-21). 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XII.  1^3 

1.  I  beseech  you  tlierefore,  brethren,  by  the  mercies 
of  God,  that  ye  present  your  bodies  a  living  sacriiice,  holy, 
acceptable  unto  God,  vjhich  is  your  reasonable  service. 

2.  And  be  not  conformed  to  this  world :  but  be  ye 
transformed  by  the  renewing  of  your  mind,  that  ye  may 
prove  what  is  that  good,  and  acceptable,  and  perfect  will 
of  God. 

Paul  assumed  that  the  reader  of  this  chapter  has  already 
read  the  chapters  preceding  this,  and  therefore  has  before 
his  mind  all  those  exceeding  great  mercies  which  are  em- 
bosomed in  the  glorious  gospel  scheme.  The  righteousness 
of  God  by  faith  in  Christ ;  peace  with  God  ;  a  state  exempt 
from  all  condemnation  before  the  law  ;  a  living  union  with 
Christ ;  the  indwelling  Spirit ;  victory  over  sin  ;  all  things 
working  together  for  good  and  glory  unspeakable  in  the 
future  world  ; — What  could  be  greater  and  what  more  can 
be  added  to  swell  the  volume  of  these  mercies  of  God  to  the 
uttermost  limit  possible  for  mortals  to  receive  ! — By  all 
these  mercies,  therefore,  (says  Paul),  I  beseech  you  that  ye 
present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice  unto  God,  in  holiness 
such  as  is  acceptable  to  him — all  which  is  your  reasonable 
service,  reasonably  due  from  you  to  God  in  return  for  so 
great  mercies.  The  figure  comes  from  the  Jewish  sacrifices 
— supposably  from  the  *'  whole  burnt  offering,"  the  signifi- 
cance of  which  was  the  consecration  of  all  to  God.  In  the 
case  of  animals  offered  to  God  in  sacrifice,  their  life  was 
taken  and  their  flesh,  being  consecrated  to  God,  was  con- 
sumed on  the  altar,  or  used  appropriately  in  modes  pre- 
scribed.— But  in  the  case  of  Christian  men  presenting  their 
bodies,  the  sacrifice  was  to  be  a  "living"  one.  Of  course 
the  "  body  "  is  spoken  of  (''  present  your  bodies  ")  because 
the  figure  before  the  mind — animals  offered  in  sacrifice — 
suggested  the  consecration  of  the  bodi/.  But,  of  his  intelli- 
gent creatures  God  asks,  not  the  body  only  or  mainly,  but 
the  spirit  primarily — the  very  soul — as  Paul  proceeds  im- 
mediately to  show.  The  conseci'ation  of  even  our  bodily 
members  and  organs  is  to  be  made,  not  by  laying  human 
flesh  upon  an  altar  of  stone,  but  by  the  willing,  loving  de- 
votion— the  consecration  by  act  of  mind,  of  all  we  have  and 
all  we  are  to  the  service  of  God. 

"  Conformed  "  and  "  transformed,"  conceive  of  men  as 
having  in  themselves  a  power  to  shape  their  own  free  ac- 


144  ROMANS— CHAP.  XII. 

tivities  and  their  own  voluntary  character.  It  supposes 
them  competent  on  the  one  hand  to  I'esist  and  rule  out  of 
their  souls  the  spirit  of  the  world ;  and  on  the  other,  to  trans- 
form their  own  heart  and  life  into  harmony  with  the  perfect 
will  of  God. — Let  it  not  be  thought  however,  that  this  power 
of  self-renovation  and  self-culture  will  be  applied  to  pur- 
pose and  with  all  success,  without  the  help  of  the  Spirit  and 
the  truth  of  God.  Kather  the  gospel  theory  is — Nothing 
without  God's  Spirit  as  our  renewing  help ; — everything 
with  and  by  means  of  Christ  dwelling  in  us  by  his  Spirit, 
"I  can  do  all  things  through  Christ  strengthening." — Let 
it  then  be  well  borne  in  mind  that  this  offering  of  ourselves 
a  living  sacrifice  holy  unto  God  carries  with  it  the  not  being 
conformed  to  this  world,  on  the  one  hand  ;  and  on  the  other, 
the  being  transformed  by  the  constant  renewing  of  the  mind 
so  as  to  make  full  proof  of  what  the  will  of  God  is — viz., 
that  which  is  good,  well  pleasing  [unto  him],  and  there- 
fore wanting  in  nothing. — The  word  "prove"  [-''that  ye 
may  ]}rove  "]  is  very  expressive.  It  means — that  ye  may 
make  full  proof  of  in  your  own  experience — that  ye  not 
only  make  the  trial,  but  really  accomjMsh  the  thing  ye  try 
to  do — prove  it  in  your  own  experience. — In  Eph.  5  :  10 
Paul  has  the  same  word  as  here, — '*'  Proving  what  is  well 
pleasing  to  the  Lord." 

3.  For  I  say,  through  the  grace  given  unto  me,  to 
every  man  that  is  among  you,  not  to  think  of  himself 
more  highly  than  he  ought  to  think  ;  but  to  think  soberly, 
according  as  God  hath  dealt  to  every  man  the  measure 
of  faith. 

4.  For  as  we  have  many  members  in  one  body,  and 
all  members  have  not  the  same  office : 

5.  So  we,  being  many,  are  one  body  in  Christ,  and 
every  one  members  one  of  another. 

By  virtue  of  the  grace  given  him  as  an  apostle,  Paul 
speaks  to  every  one  of  them — said  perhaps  with  an  eye  not 
only  to  his  authority  as  an  apostle  but  to  the  grace  of  wis- 
dom and  knowledge  with  which  God  had  endowed  him  for 
his  apostleship.  Exercising  this  grace  of  wisdom,  Paul  ex- 
horts them  not  to  overestimate  themselves — that  no  one 
think  more  highly  of  himself  than  he  ought — i.  e.  than 
truth  will  warrant  :  but  aim  at  a  sober-minded  estimate 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XII.  145 

''  according  as  God  had  imparted  to  each  his  own  measure 
of  faith  (in  the  sense  of  Christian  worth.) — As  in  our  own 
human  body  there  are  many  members,  but  not  all  Avith  the 
same  functions — not  all  for  the  same  service,  so  in  the 
church — we,  being  many,  are  one  body,  and  severally  are 
members  of  one  another.  Whatever  gifts  we  have  belong 
to  the  church  rather  than  to  ourselves,  and  should  be  used 
in  behalf  of  the  church  for  that  service  to  which  they  are 
adapted. 

The  point  here  made — ''  Every  one  members  one  of 
another" — is  well  illustrated  by  a  case  somewhere  reported 
of  a  strong-limbed  blind  man  carrying  on  his  back  a  crip- 
pled but  well-seeing  boy.  Here  was  one  good  pair  of  legs 
for  the  two  and  one  good  pair  of  eyes.  This  man  and  this 
boy  were  members  one  of  another,  the  eyes  belonging  as 
much  to  the  man  as  to  the  boy,  while  the  strong  limbs 
served  the  boy  as  truly  as  the  man.  And  the  kind  lielpf  ul 
feeling  in  both  parties  would  be  entirely  vital  to  their 
mutual  well-being. — Very  like  this  in  the  church,  the  gifts 
of  each  one  become  the  common  property  of  all.  Whoever 
has  any  one  quality  in  superior  degree  should  hold  and  use 
it  for  the  common  welfare  of  the  whole  body.  Thus  by  love 
should  men  and  women  in  their  church  relations  serve  one 
another. — In  1  Cor.  13  Paul  has  expanded  fully  this  cen- 
tral idea — diversity  of  gifts,  sacred  to  the  use  of  the  whole 
church,  the  idea  being  carried  out  as  here  under  the  figure 
of  the  many  members  of  the  human  body. 

6.  Having  then  gifts  differing  according  to  the  grace 
that  is  given  to  ns,  whether  prophecy,  let  us  projphesy 
according  to  the  proportion  of  faith ; 

7.  Or  ministry,  let  us  wait  on  our  ministering  ;  or  he 
that  teacheth,  on  teaching ; 

8.  Or  he  that  exhorteth,  on  exhortation:  he  that 
giveth  let  him  do  it  with  simplicity ;  he  that  ruleth  with 
diligence  ;  he  that  sheweth  mercy,  with  cheerfulness. 

The  numerous  Italic  words  here  indicate  that  Paul's 
sentence  is  very  elliptical,  omitting  many  words.  Yet 
our  auth.  version  doubtless  gives  the  sense  correctly. 

These  "gifts," — of  the  Apostolic  age — were  special  en- 
dowments from  the  Holy  Ghost,  differing  from  each  other 
according  to  the  grace  given — for  this  diversity  was  of  God's 


148  ROMANS.-CHAP.  XII. 

wisdom — for  the  purposes  we  may  assume — (a)  of  utilizing 
to  the  best  purpose  the  original  native  endowments  among 
the  members  of  the  church ;  and  (b)  Of  cultivating  and 
developing  mutual  helpfulness — the  love  of  all  the  breth- 
ren and  of  the  one  common  cause  and  kingdom  of  the 
Master.  Foremost  of  these  stand  ''prophecy"  which  it  is 
well  to  notice  Paul  valued  very  highly,  apparently  above  all 
the  other  spiritual  gifts  of  this  class.  (See  1  Cor.  13  :  2 
and  14  :  1,  3,  4,  5).  "  Desire  spiritual  gifts,  but  rather 
that  ye  may  prophecy."  "  He  that  prophesieth  speaketh 
unto  men  to  edification  and  exhortation  and  comfort." 
"  Greater  is  he  that  prophesieth  than  he  that  speaketh 
with  tongues  except  he  interpret,  that  the  church  may  re- 
ceive edifying." — In  its  ordinary  exercise  it  did  not  involve 
the  prediction  of  future  events,  and  was  broadly  distin- 
guished from  speaking  with  other  tongues  ;  but  it  did  in- 
volve a  special  unction  for  preaching.  Meyer  has  well  de- 
fined it — "An  activity  of  the  mind  [nous]  enlightened 
and  filled  with  the  consecration  of  the  Spirit's  power,  dis- 
closing hidden  things  and  profoundly  seizing,  chastening, 
elevating,  carrying  away  men's  hearts." 

Let  the  brother  who  has  this  gift  of  prophecy  exercise 
it  according  to  the  quality  and  measui'e  of  the  grace  given 
him — this  phrase,  proportion  of  faith  [Gr.  anal ogia],  being 
obviously  in  the  same  sense  as  '"'measure of  faith  "  (v.  3). — 
In  V.  7  the  "minister"  is  not  the  preacher  but  the  deacoii, 
the  sense  of  the  word  "  deacon  "  being  se?'vanf,  or  minis- 
ter of  the  church.  Originally,  he  had  the  function  of  car- 
ing for  and  dispensing  the  temporalities  of  the  church 
(Acts  6).  If  this  be  his  office,  let  him  devote  himself  to 
it  faithfully.  So  also  the  teacher  to  his  teaching,  and  the 
exhorter  to  his  service  of  exhortation. — "  He  that  giveth" 
is  not  here  the  man  who  makes  a  donation  out  of  his  own 
property,  but  he  who  disburses,  distributes,  the  alms  of 
the  church  entrusted  to  his  keeping.  If  benefaction  were 
the  sense,  benevolence  should  be  the  motive  and  wisdom 
the  guiding  principle  ;  but  here  we  notice  that  the  quality 
of  mind  to  be  called  into  exercise  is  "  simplicity,''^ — ex- 
emption from  all  sinister  aims.  Let  him  look  only  at 
the  naked  merits  of  each  case,  with  no  partiality,  no 
respect  of  persons. — The  "ruling"  one  is  the  man  put  in 
charge — -J9re5id?tw<7  over  some  responsible  trust.  In  some 
passages  this  word  signifies  presiding  over  assemblies  of 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XII.  147 

men  ;  while  in  other  cases,  it  seems  to  signify  the  responsi- 
ble charge  of  some  service  or  work.  The  quality  of  dili- 
gence seems  more  appropriate  to  the  latter  than  the  former. 
— The  "  showing  of  mercy,"  is  of  course,  said  here  of  men, 
not  of  God  ;  and  of  men,  not  in  their  functions  as  civil 
officers  who  might  have  the  pardoning  power  ;  but  far 
more  probably,  of  those  who  were  called  to  some  service 
of  sympathy,  compassion  (e.  g.)  in  help  of  the  suffering. 
Let  such  fulfil  this  service  with  cheerfulness.  It  might  be 
very  unpleasant,  very  disagreeable  ;  but  let  them  give  large 
place  to  the  impulses  of  humanity,  pity,  compassion  ;  and 
be  cheerful  in  it  all. — The  question  will  arise; — Is  Paul 
describing  the  duty  which  belongs  to  the  distinct,  well  de- 
fined offices  existing  in  the  primitive  church  ;  or  rather, 
the  unofficial  service  for  which  the  Spirit  might  give  vari- 
ous brethren  special  qualifications,  and  which,  therefore, 
they  were  to  perform  as  occasion  might  call :  Or  may  a 
part  of  these  directions  refer  to  distinct  offices,  and  the  rest 
apply  to  miscellaneous  services  to  be  performed  by  such  as 
had  the  requisite  qualifications  ? — Of  these  alternatives  the 
last  seems  to  me  most  probable.  The  prophet  and  the  dea- 
con; perhaps  also  the  teacher  and  the  exhorter,  fell  into 
distinct  orders  of  office; — at  least  this  seems  to  have  been 
usually  the  case.  But  the  general  drift  of  the  context  looks 
manifestly  toward  the  doctrine  of  thorough  consecration  to 
God  of  whatever  power  or  gift,  native  or  specially  imparted, 
each  one  of  the  members  of  the  church  might  have. 

9.  Let  love  be  without  dissimulation.  Abhor  that 
which  is  evil ;  cleave  to  that  which  is  good. 

10.  £e  kindly  affectioned  one  to  another  witli  broth- 
erly love ;  in  honor  preferring  one  another ; 

11.  Not  slothful  in  business ;  fervent  in  sj)irit ;  serv- 
ing the  Lord ; 

12.  Rejoicing  in  hope;  patient  in  tribulation;  con- 
tinuing instant  in  prayer ; 

13.  Distributing  to  the  necessity  of  saints;  given  to 
hospitality. 

Love  appropriately  leads  the  train  of  Christian  virtues — 
love  in  the  sense  of  good  will,  real  benevolence.  Let  this 
love  be  unhypocritical,  real  with  no  mere  pretences  ;  the 
love  of  the  heart  and  not  the  vain  show  of  it. 


148  ROMANS.— CHAP.  XII. 

Abhor  the  evil ;  cleave  to  the  good.  Turn  with  utmost 
aA'ersion  from  whaWer  is  evil ;  let  all  your  proclivities  be 
toward  and  unto  the  good. — In  brotherly  love  be  affectionate 
toward  each  other  ;  outdo  each  other,  if  possible,  in  mu- 
tual respect  for  others.  Let  this  be  your  ambition — to  sur- 
pass all  in  the  deference  and  respect  ye  manifest  toward 
others. — In  matters  requiring  diligence  never  slothful ;  in 
spirit,  evermore  fervent ;  rendering  service  to  the  Lord  and 
doing  all  things  as  nnto  him. — Under  all  circumstances  re- 
joicing in  hope  ;  patient  in  tribulation  ;  constant  in  prayer 
("praying  always  with  all  prayer  and  supplication"): — 
imparting  freely  to  meet  the  necessities  of  the  saints ;  mak- 
ing their  interests  common  with  your  own.  Also,  honor 
diligently  the  claims  of  hospitality. 

14:.  Bless  them  which  persecute  you :  bless,  and  curso 
not. 

15.  Eejoice  with  them  that  do  rejoice,  and  weep  with 
them  that  weep. 

Paul  is  wholly  with  his  Great  Master  in  this  wonderful 
precept ; — "  Bless  them  that  persecute  you  ;  bless — curse 
never."  So  Jesus  taught :  ''  Love  your  enemies  ;  bless  them 
that  curse  you  ;  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you  ;  pray  for 
them  that  despitefully  use  you  and  persecute  you  ;  that  ye 
may  be  the  children  of  your  Father  in  heaven"  (Mat.  5: 
44,  45). — Thus  the  law  of  the  christian  life  not  only  sur- 
passes the  best  human  morality  ; — it  distances  it  utterly  ; 
eclipses  it  totally,  throwing  all  else  into  the  shade.  And 
really  it  leaves  no  place  at  all  for  ill  will,  resentment ;  but 
peremptorily  demands  pure  and  perfect  love  always  and 
everywhere  ;  toward  all  men,  desj)ite  of  whatsoever  provo- 
cation to  the  contrary. 

Your  proper  bearing  toward  enemies  is  put  thus  in  few- 
est but  most  forceful  words,  in  v.  14.  Your  bearing  to- 
ward friends — all  other  than  enemies — in  v.  15.  Eejoice 
with  the  joyful ;  weep  with  the  sorrowing  ;  let  your  heart 
be  full  of  sympathy,  all  its  affections  flowing  out  spontane- 
ously in  either  the  joy  or  the  sorrow  of  others. — How  much 
of  heaven  would  come  down  to  earth  with  full-hearted 
obedience  to  this  simple  law  ! 

16.  £e  of  the  same  mind  one  toward  another.     Mind 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XII.  149 

not  higli  things,  but  condescend  to  men  of  low  estate. 
Be  not  wise  in  your  own  conceits. 

This  first  precept — "  the  same  mind  one  toward  an- 
other"— miglit  supposably  mean — either,  the  same  contin- 
uously, with  affection  well  sustained  and  without  abate- 
ment : — or  the  same  toward  all  men,  in  all  conditions — 
with  no  discriminations  in  favor  of  the  liigh  against  the 
lowly.  Inasmuch  as  the  clauses  that  follow  are  probably  a 
more  full  expansion  of  the  sentiment  in  tliis,  the  latter  view 
must  have  the  preference.  Be  not  unduly  attracted  by  the 
high  things,  not  merely  toward  persons  holding  a  high 
social  place  ;  but  toward  the  lowly  as  well.  Paul's  words 
— "condescend  to  men  of  low  estate"  mean — consent  to 
move  along  loith  the  humble.  Let  your  sympathies  bear 
you  along  in  line  ^oith  them  and  not  above  them. — To  be 
very  wise  in  your  own  estimate  of  yourselves  would  tend 
strongly,  if  not  fatally,  against  obeying  these  precepts. — 
The  strain  of  thought  in  this  verse  is  upon  the  manifesta- 
tion of  love  and  sympathy,  and  not  upon  the  formation  of 
intellectual  opinions  and  views  of  doctrinal  truth.  Hence 
to  interpret  "  being  of  the  same  mind  one  toward  another  " 
to  mean — Mutually  think  the  same  thing  :  be  agreed  in 
your  opinions  and  views — is  quite  foreign  from  this  current 
of  thought.  ''  One  toward  another  "  is  not  the  sjihere  for 
forming  theoretical  opinions.  For  a  man  to  think  his  doc- 
trinal opinions,  toward,  or  unto,  his  fellow-disciples,  is 
scarcely  apostolic. 

17.  Recompense  to  no  man  evil  for  evil.  Provide 
tilings  honest  in  the  sight  of  all  men. 

Pay  back  to  no  man  the  evil  he  may  have  done  to  thee. 
Forethoughtfully  provide  things  honorable,  becoming,  and 
appropriate,  before  all  men.  "  Honesty  "  as  usual  in  the 
New  Testament,  in  the  sense  of  honorable,  appropriate. 

18.  If  it  be  possible,  as  much  as  lieth  in  you,  live 
peaceably  with  all  men. 

There  may  be  men  Avho  will  not  be  at  peace  with  you 
but  who  will  persecute  and  oppress  you.  Avoid  this  if  you 
can  :  do  nothing  to  provoke  but  all  you  reasonably  can  to 
conciliate. — It  would  seem  that  Paul  thinks  here  of  the 
causeless  persecutions  which  the  best  of  Christians  could 


150  ROMANS.— CHAP.  XII. 

neither  prevent,  fivoid,  or  escape. — But  let  nothing  be  ever 
lacking  on  their  part  which  can  be  done  conscientiously 
toward  living  in  peace  with  all  men. 

19. ,  Dearly  beloved,  avenge  not  yourselves,  but  rather 
give  place  imto  wratli :  for  it  is  written,  Yengeance  is 
mine  ;  I  will  repay,  saitli  the  Lord. 

20.  Therefore  if  thine  enemy  hunger,  feed  him ;  if 
he  thirst,  give  him  drink :  for  in  so  doing  thou  shalt 
heap  coals  of  fire  on  his  head. 

21.  Be  not  overcome  of  evil,  but  overcome  evil  with 
good. 

Eevenge  is  never  a  Christian  virtue  ;  can  never  be  right 
in  any  human  heart  or  life,  and  certainly  not  in  the  Chris- 
tian ;  for  it  belongs  not  to  men  but  to  God.  Let  Him 
requite  ;  he  has  said  he  would  ;  and  his  justice  and  wisdom 
are  surely  equal  to  any  demand  which  violence  and  wrong 
may  make  upon  him.  Is  he  not  the  moral  Governor  of 
all  ? — Then  let  it  be  your  part  to  ply  to  the  utmost  the  law 
of  kindness.  Feed  your'enemy,  hungry  ;  give  him  water 
for  his  thirst.  So  will  your  retaliation  be  noble  on  your 
part — but  terrible  upon  his  sense  of  honor,  manhood,  right 
— if  he  be  not  utterly  past  all  moral  sensibility. — The  pas- 
sage is  quoted  from  Prov.  25  :  21,  22,  ending  there  with 
the  words — '•'  And  the  Lord  shall  reward  thee.'' 

The  conception — '•'  Coals  of  fire  upon  the  head  " — seems 
to  have  followed  the  usage  of  laying  the  hands  upon  the 
head  in  benediction,  as  if  that  Avere  the  place  to  lay  bless- 
ings ; — but  in  the  case  of  outrageous  wickedness  requited 
with  kindness,  the  blessing  put  on  the  head  burns  in  like 
coals  of  fire. 

This  figure  may  suggest  to  us  that  the  torment  of  fire 
when  spoken  of  the  future  punishment  of  tlie  wicked  may 
be,  at  least  in  large  measure,  of  this  mental  sort — the  sense 
of  shame  and  everlasting  contempt — a  feeling  of  inex- 
pressible meanness,  a  consciousness  of  guilt  that  refuses  to 
be  thrown  ofl:,  but  fastens  its  terrible  grip  upon  the  soul, 
never  to  be  relaxed ; — the  deep  conviction  of  folly  for 
which  none  else  is  to  blame ;  a  consciousness  of  having 
thrown  away  the  boon  of  a  blessed  immortality — for  abso- 
lutely nothing  ! 

Finally,  says  Paul,  let  evil  never  overcome  you,  but 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XII.  151 

rather  overcome  it — all  the  evil  that  comes  upon  you — with 
good  in  return.  These  are  the  glorious  victories  of  purity 
and  love.  Their  spirit  is  godlike  ;  their  fruits  in  the  soul 
are  the  very  joy  of  heaven. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

Conscientious  obedience  to  civil  authority  because  it  is 
ordained  of  God  (v.  1-5) ;  cheerful  paying  of  taxes  and  of 
all  honest  dues  (v.  6,  7) ;  but  the  debt  of  love  remains  ever 
binding,  never  exhausted  ;  and  this  is  itself  the  fulfilling 
of  all  moral  law  (v.  8-10).  Special  reasons  for  wakeful 
diligence  and  for  a  virtuous  christian  life  (v.  11-14). 

1.  Let  every  soul  be  subject  unto  the  higher  powers. 
For  there  is  no  power  but  of  God :  the  powers  that  be 
are  ordained  of  God. 

2.  Whosoever  therefore  resisteth  the  power,  resisteth 
the  ordinance  of  God :  and  they  that  resist  shall  receive 
to  themselves  damnation. 

Beyond  question  these  higher  powers  are  the  civil  au- 
thorities, the  hunaan  government,  under  which  Christians 
at  Rome  were  living.  Paul  most  distinctly  recognizes  civil 
government  as  of  divine  appointment — in  harmony  Avith 
the  will  of  God.  This  does  not  decide  which  of  many  pos- 
sible forms  is  in  God's  sight  the  best,  nor  who  out  of  the 
many  rival  claimants  to  power  has  the  right  on  his  side. 
It  goes  just  to  the  extent  of  recognizing  the  principle  of 
civil  government  as  a  necessity  to  well  ordered  society,  and 
the  consequent  duty  of  obedience  to  its  laws.  In  general 
the  Christian's  duty  would  be — submission  to  the  govern- 
ment which  in  fact  is  holding  and  exercising  the  functions 
of  civil  power. 

In  the  age  of  Paul,  Jewish  mind  was  restive  under  the 
Roman  yoke — mooting  the  question  of  paying  tribute  to 
Cesar  (Matt.  23  :  17)  ;  proud  of  freedom  from  any  foreign 
yoke,  and  aspiring  all  too  eagerly  to  reach  and  hold  it  (John 
8  ;  33).  Some  were  apparently  fascinated  with  the  notion 
that  their  Messiah  would  build  his  kingdom  on  the  com- 


152  ROMANS.— CHAP.  XIII. 

mon  footing  of  all  human  kingdoms  and  supersede  their 
authority — so  exempting  his  subjects  from  all  allegiance  to 
Gentile  dominion.  In  the  Christian  churches  at  least,  all 
notions  of  this  sort  must  needs  be  suppressed  with  a  firm 
hand — the  more  so  because  the  Eoman  sway  was  in  fact  ab- 
solute, and  because  insubordination  must  surely  incur  per- 
secution. If  Christianity  was  to  make  headway  in  the 
Eoman  Empire,  it  must  be  inoffensive.  The  passive  vir- 
tues must  needs  be  put  boldly  in  the  foreground,  conspic- 
uously prominent. 

3.  For  nilers  are  not  a  teiTor  to  good  works,  but  to 
the  evil.  Wilt  thou  then  not  be  afraid  of  the  power? 
Do  that  which  is  good,  and  thou  shalt  have  praise  of  the 
same: 

4.  For  he  is  the  minister  of  God  to  thee  for  good. 
But  if  thou  do  that  which  is  evil,  be  afraid;  for  he  bear- 
eth  not  the  sword  in  vain :  for  he  is  the  minister  of 
God,  a  revenger  to  execute  wrath  upon  him  that  doeth 
evil. 

5.  "Wherefore  ye  must  needs  be  subject,  not  only  for 
wrath,  but  also  for  conscience'  sake. 

Eoman  laws  were  by  no  means  perfect  ;  yet  in  the  main 
the  acts  they  condemned  were  bad  ;  the  life  they  approved 
was  good,  so  that  their  rod  of  power  was  a  terror,  not  to 
good  deeds  but  to  bad.  Wouldst  thou  then  be  exempt 
from  fear  of  that  rod  ?  Do  good,  and  the  law  will  give 
thee  praise,  not  blame.  For  the  civil  magistrate  acts  under 
God  and  as  his  minister,  at  least  so  far  as  his  law  discrimi- 
nates against  wrong  doing  and  in  favor  of  right. — There- 
fore men  should  obey  the  civil  law  not  only  through  fear 
of  its  penalties  for  disobedience  but  from  conscience  toward 
God. 

"  Bearing  the  sword  "  was  the  badge  of  authority,  in- 
dicating the  possession  and  exercise  of  the  power  of  life  and 
death — the  death-penalty. — On  the  question  of  the  legiti- 
mate right  of  human  government  to  take  life  for  the  high- 
est crimes,  it  must  at  least  be  admitted  that  in  Paul's  view, 
the  assertion  of  this  right  did  not  vitiate  their  authority 
to  rule  and  to  demand  obedience  for  conscience'  sake. 
Paul  quietly  assumes  their  right  to  bear  the  sword  as  the 
death-penalty. 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XIII.  153 

6.  For,  for  this  cause  pay  ye  tribute  also :  for  they 
are  God's  ministers,  attending  continually  upon  this  very 
thing. 

7.  Kender  therefore  to  all  their  dues :  tribute  to 
whom  tribute  is  due  ;  custom  to  whom  custom ;  fear  to 
whom  fear ;  honor  to  whom  honor. 

The  right  of  civil  government  to  exist  and  to  enforce 
obedience  carries  with  it  the  right  of  taxation  and  the 
Christian  duty  of  paying  taxes.  Those  rulers  are  God's 
ministers,  doing  useful  service  for  him  and  therefore  en- 
titled to  be  supported  by  their  subjects. 

From  this  point  Paul  advances  to  the  broadest  genera- 
lization :  Eender  to  all  their  dues  ;  meet  every  honest 
claim  upon  you,  whether  of  money  or  its  equivalent,  or  of 
the  honor  due  to  civil  officers.  Due  honor,  being  in  fact  a 
contribution  of  small  cost,  yet  of  great  value  to  the  moral 
support  of  government,  should  by  all  means  be  rendered 
cheerfully. 

8.  Owe  no  man  anything,  but  to  love  one  another; 
for  he  that  loveth  another  hath  fulfilled  the  law. 

9.  For  this,  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adulter}^.  Thou 
shalt  not  kill,  Thou  shalt  not  steal.  Thou  shalt  not  bear 
false  witness,  Thou  shalt  not  covet ;  and  if  there  he  any 
other  commandment,  it  is  briefly  comprehended  in  this 
saying,  namely,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thy- 
self. 

10.  Love  worketh  no  ill  to  his  neighbour:  there- 
fore love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law. 

In  point  of  grammatical  form  the  first  word  of  v.  8, 
"  owe," — might  be  either  indicative  or  imperative — i.  e. 
either — ye  do  owe  nothing  to  any  man  but  love,  for  love 
fulfils  all  law  ;  or  owe  ye  no  man  any  thing  ;  pay  every 
honest  debt. — The  former  might  seem  to  find  some  support 
from  the  logic  of  the  passage — '\fo7'  love  fulfils  all  law." — 
But  strongly  against  this  indicative  construction  are  these 
facts  ; — (a)  That  the  whole  current  of  thought  here  is  im- 
perative— a  series  of  precepts  ; — "  Pay  ye  tribute  ; "  "  Ren- 
der to  all  their  dues  "  etc.  ; — (b).  That  the  sense  of  the  in- 
dicative has  an  air  of  limitation  : — we  can  never  owe  any 
thing  but  love — which  is  quite  out  of  harmony  with  the 


154  ROMANS.— CHAP.  XIII. 

drift  of  the  passage,  and  would  lie  dangerously  open  to 
abuse. — It  is  better,  therefore  (with  the  Auth.  version)  to 
retain  the  imperative  ;  Owe  nothing  to  any  man  ;  pay  every 
honest  debt ;  or  better  still,  make  no  debt — certainly  not 
any  debt  of  doubtful  sort  as  to  payment. — Suddenly  at  this 
point,  the  claims  of  the  law  of  love  flash  upon  Paul's  mind, 
and  he  subjoins  as  an  after  thought : — Owe  nothing  save 
the  debts  of  love  ;  these  you  can  never  exhaust — never  can 
pay  off  so  entirely  that  no  more  shall  remain  to  be  paid. 
The  moral  claims  of  that  grand  law,  all  put  sensibly  into 
that  one  precept  love  one  another — must  endure  long  as  life; 
— long  as  society  exists  ;  long  as  there  are  fellow-beings 
whom  your  love  can  bless. 

In  V.  9.  Paul  would  show  by  specifying  the  precepts  of 
the  decalogue  that  these  forbidden  acts  violate  the  law  of 
love  and  consequently  that  love  does  truly  fulfil  the  whole 
spirit  of  the  law. 

The  one  comprehensive  precept — "  Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself  " — carries  in  itself  all  the  prohibitions  of 
the  second  table  of  the  decalogue — against  disrespect  to 
parents  ;  adultery  ;  theft,  falsehood,  covetousness  ; — so 
that  all  the  law  might  be  truthfully  put  into  that  affirma- 
tive form — equal  and  impartial  love  to  all.  Inasmuch  as 
from  its  nature  love  must  seek  evermore  "  the  well-being 
and  never  the  ill  of  one's  neighbor  " — i.  e.  of  every  one  who 
comes  within  reach  of  your  acts  and  influence,  therefore, 
love  cannot  work  any  ill  to  a  neighbor,  and  must  be  the 
fulfilling  of  all  law. 

In  the  sense  of  Paul,  love  is  not  merely  a  tender  emo- 
tion, but  is  the  good-willing  of  the  heart,  honestly,  sin- 
cerely purposed,  and  earnestly  carried  into  action  for  the 
good  and  never  for  the  ill  of  the  neighbor  who  is  so  near 
that  your  loving  heart  and  well-doing  hand  can  reach  him. 
Paul  always  thinks  of  this  love  as  "  working" — not  merely 
weeping  emotional  tears — but  actively  laboring  to  bless. 

The  reader  should  carefully  notice  that  this  love  is  due 
to  **thy  neighbor" — no  other  condition  or  qualification 
being  put  into  this  law.  He  is  not  assumed  to  be  your 
benefactor — either  in  the  past  or  hopefully  in  the  future  ; 
i.  e.  this  law  of  loving  is  not  supposed  to  limit  the  people 
to  be  loved  and  benefitted  to  those  who  have  shown  favors 
or  good  will  to  you. — Moreover,  this  ''neighbor"  is  not 
described  as  being  personally  agreeable — a  man  to  your 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XIII.  155 

taste  ;  or  to  be  on  the  same  social  plane  with  yourself — of 
the  same  caste  in  society.  The  only  mark  by  which  you 
are  to  know  him  is  that  he  is  your  neighbor — i.  e.  so  near 
to  you  that  your  love  can  reach  him  with  good  will  and 
benefactions.  This  is  all  that  you  need  to  know  of  him  to 
identify  him  as  the  object  of  your  love.  And  in  the  ap- 
plication of  this  rule,  there  is  not  the  least  occasion  to 
measure  distance  in  feet  or  in  miles  :  if  the  man  is  within 
your  reach,  then  love  him  and  do  him  good.  Plainly  Paul 
might  have  said — Love  every  body  in  earth  or  heaven  ; 
love  all  sentient  beings  whose  happiness  is  a  good  to  be 
sought ;  but  to  put  the  law  in  a  more  practical  shape  and 
to  lead  the  thought  toward  the  good-doing  which  the  law 
demands,  Paul  chose  to  say — i/our  neighbor: 

11.  And  that,  knowing  the  time,  that  now  ii  is  high 
time  to  awake  out  of  sleep :  for  now  is  our  salvation 
nearer  than  when  we  believed. 

12.  The  night  is  far  spent,  the  day  is  at  hand:  let  us 
therefore  cast  off  the  works  of  darkness,  and  let  us  put 
on  the  armour  of  light. 

13.  Let  us  walk  honestly,  as  in  the  day ;  not  in  riot- 
ing and  dninkenness,  not  in  chambering  and  in  wanton- 
ness, not  in  strife  and  envying ; 

14.  But  put  ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  make 
not  provision  for  the  flesh,  io  fulfil  the  lusts  thereof. 

To  the  exercise  of  this  great,  broad  duty  of  love,  Paul 
here  names  some  special  inducements  arising  from  peculiar 
circumstances.  The  times  were  making  urgent  demands 
for  wakeful  energy.  Life  is  not  only  short  but  with  many 
might  be  drawing  near  its  end.  As  to  all  of  them  that 
wonderful  redemption  which  would  come  at  death  was 
nearer  far  than  when  they  first  believed.  Let  them  live 
therefore  under  a  sense  of  the  nearness  of  that  other  world, 
and  of  the  very  short  time  that  remained  for  the  labors 
of  earth.  Men  Avho  are  coming  so  near  to  the  light  of 
heaven  should  repel  the  works  of  darkness  and  turn  away 
with  loathing  from  every  thing  that  breathes  the  spirit  oi 
darkness — from  all  those  deeds  of  shame  that  slink  away 
from  even  the  dull  vision  of  human  eyes. — A  nobler  life, 
congenial  to  a  far  purer  light,  should  command  their  aspira- 
tions.   Let  them  put  on  the  spirit  tind  imitate  the  life  of  the 


156  ROMANS.— CHAP.  XIII. 

Lord    Jesus,  and   no    longer  plan  for    a  fleshly  life  but 
rather  for  the  life  of  Christ  and  of  heaven. 


-z/rn>- 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  whole  of  this  chap.  14  and  chap.  15:  1-7,  consti- 
tute one  section  and  should  have  been  thrown  into  one 
chapter.  Its  single  theme  is — How  to  treat  conscientious 
scru2)les  on 2Joints  essejitially  unim'portant . — Of  the  points 
indicated  here,  the  eating  of  flesh  stands  in  the  foreground; 
in  the  background  are  the  drinking  of  wine  and  the  obser- 
vance of  days  considered  sacred. — Scruples  of  similar  sort 
in  regard  to  eating  meat  which  had  been  or  might  have 
been  offered  to  an  idol,  appear  in  1  Cor.  8-10;  and  the 
same  christian  principles  are  indicated  there  as  here  ;  but 
this  passage  contains  no  allusion  to  that  particular  occa- 
sion for  conscientious  scruples. 

Historically,  it  seems  reasonably  certain  that  the  scru- 
ples which  come  to  the  surface  in  our  passage  are  traceable 
to  the  sect  known  among  the  Jews  as  the  Essenes.  The 
important  things  to  notice  here,  bearing  upon  the  moral 
questions  involved  in  the  case,  are  that  their  scruples  re- 
lated to  points  of  no  intrinsic  importance,  yet  were  honestly 
held,  and  therefore  took  strong  hold  of  tender  sensitive  con- 
sciences. 

As  between  the  two  parties  in  the  church — the  men 
who  had  such  scruples  and  the  men  who  had  not — the 
former  were  in  danger  of  charging  sin  upon  their  less 
scrupulous  brethren,  and  the  latter,  of  treating  their  super- 
scrupulous  brethren  with  disrespect  or  even  contempt. 
Paul  comes  in  to  mediate  between  them — to  discuss  the 
moral  question  which  their  diverse  attitudes  involved  ;  and 
to  apply  the  christian  principles  germain  to  the  case. 

1.  Him  that  is  weak  in  tlie  faith  receive  ye,  hut  not 
to  doubtful  disputations. 

The  word  "•  faith  "  must  needs  be  taken  here  in  a  very 
broad  sense,  substantially  equivalent  to  christian  sentiment, 


KOMANS.— CHAP.  XIV.  157 

views  of  what  constitutes  christian  duty  and  the  religious 
life. 

*'  Weakness  "  here  is  not  the  opposite  of  strejigth  in  the 
sense  of  strong  convictions  of  truth,  firmness  of  belief  ;  but 
is  rather  opposed  to  what  is  well  considered,  sensible.  They 
greatly  over-estimated  the  value  of  their  peculiar  notions 
and  practices  ;  their  minds  were  ill  informed  and  their 
consciences  morbidly  sensitive  on  these  trivial  matters. — A 
man  of  this  sort,  Paul  exhorts  the  brethren  to  "receive," 
i.  e.  to  their  christian  confidence  and  fellowship — using  the 
same  verb  here  as  in  the  last  clause  of  v.  3;  "  God  hath 
received  him."  As  God  could  bear  with  his  crude  notions 
and  sharp,  misguided  conscience  because  he  had  an  honest 
heart,  and  therefore  "received"  him,  so  should  ye.  Men 
should  not  be  more  strict  or  pure  than  God. — But  do  not 
receive  such  a  man  "  unto  doubtful  disputations; "  do  not 
take  him  in  to  dispute  and  discuss  him  into  deeper  perplex- 
ity and  greater  soreness  of  conscience  ; — for  commonly  such 
are  not  the  men  to  take  in  new  light  under  vigorous  dis- 
cussion. Paul's  words — "  unto  doubtful  disputations" — I 
take  to  mean — critical  discussions  of  opinion  reasoned  out — 
based  on  reasoning. — Whoever  will  consider  the  peculiari- 
ties of  such  minds  will  see  that  Paul  judged  wisely  in  ad- 
vising against  treating  them  to  logical  discussion. 

2.  For  one  believeth  that  he  may  eat  all  things :  an- 
other, who  is  weak,  eateth  herbs. 

3.  Let  not  him  that  eateth  despise  him  that  eateth 
not ;  and  let  not  him  which  eateth  not  judge  him  that 
eateth :  for  God  hath  received  him. 

4.  Who  art  thou  that  judgest  another  man's  ser- 
vant ?  to  his  own  master  he  standeth  or  f alleth  ;  yea,  he 
shall  be  holden  up :  for  God  is  able  to  make  him  stand. 

5.  One  man  esteemeth  one  day  above  another :  an- 
other esteemetli  every  day  alike.  Let  every  man  be  fully 
persuaded  in  his  own  mind. 

Paul  gives  the  sentiments  of  the  men  he  speaks  of  and 
the  "way  to  treat  them. — One  man  thinks  it  right,  or  at 
least  not  wrong,  to  eat  certain  kinds  of  food.  Another, 
being  weak — i.e.  having  erroneous  views  and  holding  them 
with  morbid  concientiousness,  eats  only  herbs. — The  eating 
man  is  prone  to  think  his  not-eating  brother  very  foolish  ; 


158  ROMANS— CHAP.  XIV. 

the  latter  is  equally  prone  to  judge  his  brother  who  eats 
all  things  to  be  very  wicked.  This  latter  being  the  graver 
charge  and  the  greater  offence,  Paul  admonishes  the  man 
who  thus  judges  his  brother  that  God  hath  received  him  and 
he  should  not  presume  to  judge  another  man's  servant — i.e. 
a  man  who  honestly  serves  God  as  his  supreme  Master.  He 
stands  or  falls  before  this  Master  ;  and — God  will  hold 
him  up  if  indeed  he  is  an  honest  servant. 

Another  point  of  concientious  diversity  is  that  of  re- 
garding certain  days  specially  sacred.  On  this  point  also, 
Paul's  doctrine  is — Let  every  man  make  up  his  own  mind 
in  view  of  all  the  light  before  him,  and  then  act  accord- 
ingly- 

6.  He  tliat  regardeth  the  day,  rogardetli  it  unto  the 
Lord ;  and  lie  that  regardeth  not  the  day,  to  the  Lord  he 
doth  not  regard  it.  He  that  eateth,  eateth  to  the  Lord, 
for  he  giveth  God  thanks ;  and  he  that  eateth  not,  to  the 
Lord  he  eateth  not,  and  giveth  God  thanks. 

7.  For  none  of  ns  liveth  to  himself,  and  no  man  dieth 
to  himself. 

8.  For  whether  we  live,  vre  live  nnto  the  Lord ;  and 
whether  we  die,  we  die  unto  the  Lord :  whether  we  live 
therefore,  or  die,  we  are  the  Lord's. 

9.  For  to  this  end  Christ  both  died,  and  rose,  and 
revived,  that  he  might  be  Lord  both  of  the  dead  and 
the  living. 

The  points  which,  with  so  much  good  sense,  or  should 
we  not  rather  say — with  so  much  inspired  wisdom  from 
God,  Paul  makes  vital  to  both  these  parties  are — that  they 
form  each  his  own  opinion  in  all  good  conscience  toward 
God  and  act  upon  it  as  unto  God  and  unto  God  only — all 
under  the  one  supreme  purpose  of  doing  the  whole  will  of 
God.  Moreover,  that  they  accept  the  gifts  which  God  be- 
stows with  gratitude  to  the  Great  Giver.  So  living,  we 
none  of  us  live  to  ourselves  but  all  live  unto  and  for  the 
Lord.  Living  or  dying,  we  are  his  supremely,  as  truly  his 
after  death,  in  the  world  to  come,  as  before  death  in  this 
world,  because  (v.  9)  Christ  has  died  and  has  lived  again 
in  exalted  reigning  life  in  heaven  that  He  may  be  supreme 
Lord  of  his  people,  both  the  dead  and  the  living.  O'i 
course  it  follows  that  Christ  alone  is  the  Lord  of  every 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XIV.  159 

man's  conscience,  and  no  one  of  his  children  should  usurp 
his  authority  in  this  matter  and  set  up  himself  to  judge 
his  brother. 

10.  But  wliy  dost  thoii  judge  thy  brother?  or  why 
dost  thou  set  at  nought  thy  brother?  for  we  shall  all 
stand  before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ. 

11.  For  it  is  written,  As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord,  every 
knee  shall  bow  to  me,  and  every  tongue  shall  confess  to 
God. 

12.  So  then  every  one  of  us  shall  give  account  of 
himself  to  God. 

Why  shouldst  thou  usurp  the  authority  and  preroga- 
tives of  Christ,  and  erect  thy  puny  judgment  seat  to  pass 
thy  sentence  upon  thy  conscientious  brother  ?  We  are  all 
to  stand  before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ — no  one  of  us 
to  be  the  judge  of  anybody — but  every  one  to  be  judged 
by  the  same  Supreme  Lord  and  judge  of  all.  Every  man 
must  give  account  of  himself  and  for  himself  unto  God  ; — 
a  fact  which,  duly  considered,  should  impress  the  convic- 
tion that  we  shall  have  enough  to  do  in  preparation  for  our 
personal  trial  with  no  time  to  spare  for  judging  our  con- 
scientious brother. — V.  11  is  quoted  from  Isa.  45:  23 — 
which,  where  it  stands  must  be  referred  to  the  submission 
of  the  nations  to  God  as  their  King,  and  apparently,  to 
their  willing,  joyful  submission  under  the  subduing  power 
of  the  gospel.  The  words  may  well  express  the  subjuga- 
tion of  the  moral  universe  to  Christ  as  final  Judge — as 
Paul  applies  them  here. 

13.  Let  us  not  therefore  judge  one  another  anymore : 
but  judge  this  rather,  that  no  man  put  a  stumbling-block 
or  an  occasion  to  fall  in  his  brother's  way. 

14.  I  know,  and  am  persuaded  by  the  Lord  Jesus, 
1  hat  there  is  nothing  unclean  of  itself :  but  to  him  that 
csteemeth  any  thing  to  be  unclean,  to  him  it  is  unclean. 

With  a  fine  play  upon  the  two  senses  of  the  word 
''judge,^'  Paul  says — No  longer  judge  one  another,  usurp- 
ing Christ's  own  supreme  prerogative  ;  but  judge  this  to 
be  the  sensible  thing  ;  settle  this  conviction  firmly  in  your 
mind — never  to  put  a  stumbling-block  in  a  brother's  way. 
Take  care  never  to  grieve  him  or  cause  him  to  fall. 


IGO  KOMANS— CHAP.  XIV. 

On  the  point  of  any  essential  distinction  as  to  things 
reputed  clean  or  unclean,  I  am  persuaded,  living  in 
closest  sympathy  with  Christ,  that  this  distinction  is  null 
and  void  and  there  is  nothing  in  it  at  all.  Yet  if  a  man 
supposes  any  thing  to  be  morally  unclean  to  him,  it  is  so. 
That  is  all. 

15.  But  if  thy  brother  be  grieved  with  thy  meat,  now 
walkest  thou  not  charitably.  Destroy  not  him  with  thy 
meat,  for  whom  Christ  died. 

16.  Let  not  then  your  good  be  evil  spoken  of : 

17.  For  the  kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat  and  drink ; 
but  righteousness,  and  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

18.  For  he  that  in  these  things  serveth  Christ  is  ac- 
ceptable to  God,  and  approved  of  men. 

If  thy  brother  is  grieved  with  thy  habits  of  eating,  thy 
walk  before  him  and  as  to  him  is  not  according  to  love. 
Let  not  thy  eating  destroy  a  soul  for  whom  Christ  died. 
This  assumes  that  your  course  may  break  down  his  con- 
science ;  may  lead  him  to  feel  that  he  need  have  no  con- 
science, and  so  he  may  lose  his  soul. — Beware,  therefore, 
lest  your  course  may  weaken  the  jDower  of  conscience  in  the 
case  of  your  brother,  inasmuch  as  he  may  assume  that  your 
conscientious  convictions  are  like  his,  and  consequently  that 
you  are  reckless  of  conscience.  Take  care  lest  what  is 
really  good  in  you  be  evil  spoken  of  : — in  the  present  case 
— lest  it  be  taken  as  proof  that  yoa  have  no  conscientious- 
ness toward  God. 

Try  to  make  your  brethren  understand  that  in  your 
view  the  kingdom  of  God  consists  not  in  what  men  eat  or 
drink,  nor  in  what  they  abstain  from  eating  or  drinking  ; 
but  "  in  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost." 
Labor  to  disabuse  them  of  their  extreme  notions  of  ritual- 
ism, and  to  instal  into  their  place  of  power  just  views  of 
the  spiritual  nature  of  Christ's  kingdom.  To  serve  Christ 
in  these  things  is  pleasing  to  God,  and  will  ultimately  ap- 
prove itself  to  sensible  men. 

19.  Let  us  therefore  follow  after  the  things  which 
make  for  peace,  and  things  wherewith  one  may  edify 
another. 

20.  For  meat  destroy  not  the  work  of   God.     All 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XIV.  161 

things  indeed  are  pure ;  but  it  is  evil  for  that  man  who 
eateth  with  offence. 

21.  It  is  good  neither  to  eat  flesh,  nor  to  drink  wine, 
nor  any  thing  whereby  thy  brother  stumbleth,  or  is  of- 
fended, or  is  made  weak. 

Still  putting  the  same  noble  principles  in  new  aspects, 
Paul  urges  them  to  follow  what  conduces  to  peace,  har- 
mony of  feeling,  real  love  ;  and  mutual  edification.  God's 
work  of  grace  in  the  heart,  destroy  thou  not  for  the  sake  of 
so  small  a  thing  as  meat.  Think  of  the  sacrifice  Christ 
has  made  for  the  saving  of  human  souls — and  say ;  can  you 
not  forego  all  meat,  denying  yourself  if  need  be  this  small 
indulgence  in  order  to  promote  the  interest  for  which 
Christ  died  ; — or  at  least  to  avoid  thwarting  his  endeavors 
and  sacrifices  for  the  saving  of  men  ? 

All  things  of  this  sort  are  in  themselves  pure  enough ; 
the  evil  lies  in  their  being  an  offence  to  thy  weak  brother. 
Better  never  to  eat  any  flesh  or  drink  any  wine  than  to 
offend  thy  brother's  conscience  and  so  cause  him  to  stumble 
and  fall. 

22.  Hast  thou  faith?  have  it  to  thyself  before  God. 
Happy  is  he  that  condemneth  not  himself  in  that  thing 
which  he  alloweth. 

23.  And  he  that  doubteth  is  damned  if  he  eat,  be- 
cause he  eateth.  not  of  faith ;  for  whatsoever  is  not  of 
faith  is  sin. 

The  older  manuscripts  make  a  slight  change  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  first  clause,  yet  not  affecting  the  sense  ; — 
thus  :  The  faith  which  thou  hast,  have  to  thyself  before 
God. — Enjoy  the  quiet  of  mind  and  the  peaceful  exemption 
from  the  small  bondage  which  these  unfortunate  scruples 
impose ;  yet  at  the  same  time,  abstain  from  indulging 
yourself  openly  in  any  thing  which  would  or  might  seri- 
ously harm  your  christian  brother.  Blessed  is  the  man 
who  has  no  scruples  of  a  weak,  ill  taught  conscience  con- 
demning him  in  what  he  approves. — But  on  the  other  hand, 
he  who  doubts — whose  conscience  does  not  approve — is 
condemned  if  he  eats  because  it  is  not  according  to  his  con- 
victions of  right,  is  not  according  to  his  then  present  con- 
ceptions and  belief  as  to  his  christian  duty.  Whatever 
violates  or  even  lacks  the  support  of  these  convictions,  is 


162  ROMANS.— CHAP.  XIV. 

sin.  Men  must  live  according  to  their  convictions  of  per- 
sonal duty.  God  does  not  demand  of  us  that  these  ideas 
of  duty  be  objectively  perfect ;  but  he  does  require,  that 
having  formed  them  honestly  and  with  the  best  light  and 
the  best  wisdom  at  our  command,  we  should  obey  them 
implicitly.  Obedience  to  our  best  convictions  thus  formed 
is  in  our  case  obedience  to  God.  To  disregard  them  is  to 
disown  God's  authority. 


-aOo- 


CHAPTER  XV. 

The  chapter  opens  with  a  paragraph  (v.  1-7)  to  close 
the  topic  of  chap.  14  ;  and  then  proceeds  to  speak  at  some 
length  of  the  calling  of  the  Gentiles  ;  of  his  great  commis- 
sion to  preach  the  gospel  to  them  ;  of  his  success  ;  and  of 
his  future  plans  of  missionary  labor. 

1.  We  then  that  are  strong  ought  to  bear  the  infir- 
mities of  the  weak,  and  not  to  please  ourselves. 

2.  Let  every  one  of  us  please  his  neighbor  for  his 
good  to  edification. 

3.  For  even  Christ  pleased  not  himself :  but  as  it  is 
written ;  The  reproaches  of  them  that  reproached  thee 
fell  on  me. 

4.  For  whatsoever  things  were  written  aforetime 
were  written  for  our  learning,  that  we  through  patience 
and  comfort  of  the  Scriptures  might  have  hope. 

5.  Now  the  God  of  patience  and  consolation  grant 
you  to  be  like-minded  one  toward  another  according  to 
Christ  Jesus: 

6.  That  ye  may  with  one  mind  and  one  mouth  glorify 
God,  even  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

7.  Wherefore  receive  ye  one  another,  as  Christ  also 
received  us,  to  the  glory  of  God. 

These  are  the  practical  inferences  and  applications  of 
truth  to  duty,  from  the  premises  laid  down  in  the  previous 
chapter,  all  enforced  by  the  pertinent  and  precious  example 
of  our  self-sacrificing  Redeemer. — Let  us  regard  our  per-. 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XV.  163 

sonal  self-indulgence  as  of  the  very  smallest  account  when 
measured  against  the  spiritual  welfare  of  our  weak  breth- 
ren. Jesus  did  not  please  himself,  but  as  the  scripture 
(Ps.  69:  10)  long  before  said,  bore  with  never  failing 
patience  whatever  reproaches  came  upon  him  in  the  service 
of  God. — Paul's  prayer  (v.  5,  6)  that  "ye  be  like-minded 
one  toward  another  so  that  Avith  one  mind  and  one 
mouth  ye  may  glorify  God  " — makes  emphatic  the  univer- 
sality of  this  spirit — that  all  of  every  class — the'  weak  in 
faith  and  the  strong  also — may  be  filled  with  this  spirit  of 
mutual  fellowship  and  confidence — of  tender  regard,  more- 
over to  each  other's  spiritual  welfare,  ever  watchful  against 
offences,  dangerous  to  the  soul ;  careful  not  to  please 
every  man  himself,  but  every  man  his  neighbor  for  his 
good  to  edification.  So  should  they  receive  one  another 
into  the  warm  sympathies  of  christian  fellowship,  even  as 
Christ  receives  us  all  to  the  glory  of  God. 

8.  ITow  I  say  that  Jesus  Christ  was  a  minister  of  the 
circumcision  for  the  truth  of  God,  to  confirm  the  promises 
inade  unto  the  fathers : 

9.  And  that  the  Gentiles  might  glorify  God  for  his 
mercy ;  as  it  is  written,  For  this  cause  I  will  confess  to 
thee  among  the  Gentiles,  and  sing  unto  thy  name. 

10.  And  again  he  saith,  Rejoice,  ye  Gentiles,  with 
his  people, 

11.  And  again.  Praise  the  Lord,  all  ye  Gentiles ;  and 
laud  him,  all  ye  people, 

12.  And  again,  Esaias  saith.  There  shall  be  a  root  of 
Jesse,  and  he  that  shall  rise  to  reign  over  the  Gentiles ; 
in  him  shall  the  Gentiles  trust. 

"For  I  say"  ["for"  better  than  "now,"]— not  only 
calls  special  attention  to  what  he  is  about  to  say,  but  con- 
nects it  logically  with  what  precedes.  This  logical  connec- 
tion will  become  apparent  if  it  be  assumed  that  the  party  of 
weak  faith  were  of  Jewish  antecedents,  and  their  brethren 
of  strong  faith  were  chiefly  of  Gentile — a  distinction  sus- 
tained by  the  fact  that  sacred  days  were  one  of  the  points  of 
extra  conscientiousness,  not  to  say  also,  by  the  very  cir- 
cumstance of  so  much  development  of  a  ritualistic  con- 
science. 

Having  finished  what  he  wished  to  say  as  to  the  relative 


164:  ROMANS.— CHAP.  XV. 

duties  of  those  two  classes,  he  proceeds  hei'e  to  speak  at 
some  length  upon  the  relation  of  Gentiles  to  the  gospel 
scheme. 

I'irst,  that  Jesus  Christ  became  specially  the  servant  of 
the  circumcised  Jews,  devoting  his  personal  labors  in 
preaching  the  truth  of  God  to  them  almost  exclusively,  yet 
all  with  the  broadly  comprehensive  purpose  of  "confirming 
the  promises  made  to  the  fathers,"  which  (be  it  well  con- 
sidered) very  distinctly  taught  that  Gentiles  no  less  than 
Jews  were  to  "  glorify  God  for  his  mercy."  This  truth 
Paul  here  confirms  by  four  successive  quotations  from  the 
ancient  prophets  : 

(a.)  From  Ps.  18:  49  (the  same  in  2  Sam.  22:  50)  ; 
"  Therefore  will  I  give  thanks  to  thee,  0  Lord,  among 
the  heathen  [Gentiles],  and  sing  praises  unto  thy  name." 
[Paul  quotes  the  Septuagint  omitting  only — "  0  Lord."] 

(b.)  From  Deut.  32:43.  ''Eejoice,  0  ye  nations,  with 
his  people." 

(c.)  Ps.  117:  1.  The  Auth.  version  thus  ;  "' 0  praise 
the  Lord,  all  ye  nations  ;  praise  him  all  ye  people."  Paul 
and  the  Septuagint  make  the  second  verb  stronger  than  the 
first,  the  improved  text  reading  it ; — "Let  all  the  people 
laud,  extol  with  highest  praises." 

(d.)  Isa.  11  :  10.  Our  Auth.  vers,  reads — "There  shall 
be  a  root  [i.  e.  a  root-shoot]  of  Jesse  which  shall  stand  for 
an  ensign  of  the  people  ;  to  it  shall  the  Gentiles  seek,  and 
his  rest  shall  be  glorious." 

Here  also  Paul  quotes  the  Septuagint  accurately — 
"  There  shall  come  a  root  of  Jesse,  even  one  who  shall  arise 
to  reign  over  the  Gentiles,  and  in  him  shall  the  Gentiles 
trust." 

Of  these  four  quotations,  let  it  be  particularly  noted; 

1.  That  they  are  made  from  diverse  authors  at  far  dis- 
tant periods  ;  one  from  Moses ;  another  from  David  ; 
another  from  some  Psalm-Avriter  after  the  captivity  ;  and 
the  last  from  Isaiah.  These  were  representative  men — a 
group  of  writers  well  chosen  to  express  the  fact  that 
through  all  the  ancient  ages,  the  prophets  of  Israel  saw 
that  in  the  glorious  gospel  age.  Gentiles  were  to  share  with 
the  covenant  people. 

2.  It  is  specially  noticeable  that  every  one  of  these  quo- 
tations comes  under  Paul's  general  head — "'  that  the  Gen- 
tiles should  glorify  God  for  his  mercy," — each  one  sending 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XV.  1G5 

forth  its  joyful  call  to  the  Gentiles,  to  join  with  all  the 
covenant  people  in  praising  and  extolling  the  Lord  Jehovah 
for  his  merciful  salvation.  They  are  all  manifestly  Mes- 
sianic in  character,  spoken  with  the  prophetic  eye  on  the 
Messianic  gospel  reign,  and  all  grasping  the  sublime  fact 
that  this  reign  was  destined  in  the  purpose  of  God  to  em- 
brace all  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

3.  Need  it  be  added  (the  fact  seems  to  be  often  strangely 
overlooked),  that  Paul's  faith  and  hope  and  zeal  were  glo- 
riously sustained  by  the  ancient  Messianic  prophecies  res- 
pecting the  conversion  of  the  Gentile  world.  He  knew 
what  Moses  and  David  and  Ezra  (supposably),  and  Isaiah 
had  written  on  this  subject.  It  was  his  joy  to  I'est  his  faith 
on  their  inspiring  words  and  bathe  his  soul  in  those  foun- 
tains of  living  waters — gospel  blessings  promised  and  pro- 
vided in  Jesus  Christ,  and  vast  enough  to  fill  all  the  earth. 
It  is  simply  puerile  to  suppose  that  he  looked  upon  those 
magnificent  results  as  even  then  exhausted,  their  signifi- 
cance being  only  broad  enough  to  take  in  the  small  hand- 
ful of  converts  then  just  gathered  from  tlie  Gentiles  !  Yet 
if  he  expected  the  end  of  the  gospel  age  and  of  all  gospel 
work  during  his  own  life- time,  this  must  follow. 

13.  'Now  the  God  of  hope  fill  you  with  all  joy  and 
peace  in  believing,  that  ye  may  abound  in  hope,  through 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

His  own  bosom  swelling  with  the  rapture  of  such  grand 
hopes,  how  could  he  do  less  than  pour  forth  his  prayer  to 
the  blessed  God  who  himself  enkindles  such  hopes  and  as- 
pirations in  his  servants — that  He  would  "  fill  them"  also 
(as  well  as  himself)  ''  with  all  joy  and  peace  in  beheving  ; 
that  ye  too  may  abound  in  hope  through  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost."  For,  all  hope  of  success  in  the  evangliza- 
tion  of  the  wide,  wide  world — the  countless  nations — must 
forever  rest  (as  put  here)  "in  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."  All  other  grounds  of  confidence  are  vain.  This 
has  in  it  all  the  requisite  resources  of  power. 

14.  And  I  myself  also  am  persuaded  of  you,  my 
brethren,  that  ye  also  are  full  of  goodness,  filled  with  all 
knowledge,  able  also  to  admonish  one  another. 

15.  Nevertheless,  brethren,  I  have  written  the  more 
8 


166  KOMANS.— CHAP.  XV. 

boldly  unto  you  in  some  sort,  as  putting  you  in  mind, 
because  of  the  grace  that  is  given  to  me  of  God, 

16.  That  I  should  be  the  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  to 
the  Gentiles,  ministering  the  gospel  of  God,  that  the 
offering  up  of  the  Gentiles  might  be  acceptable,  being 
sanctihed  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

This  prayer  for  you,  brethren,  ye  will  not  construe  to 
imply  any  lack  of  confidence  in  your  benevolence,  or 
knowledge,  or  ability  to  admonish  one  another. 

In  V.  15  and  onward  we  shall  understand  Paul  the 
better  if  we  bear  in  mind  that  he  had  never  been  at  Rome, 
yet  had  written  them  with  great  freedom  [it  might  perhaps 
be  called  boldness],  on  some  2Joints — this  being  the  sense 
of  the  words  put  in  our  auth.  vers. — '"'in  some  sort."  His 
apology  is  that  the  church  at  Rome  was  composed  some- 
what largely  of  Gentiles,  and  God  had  given  him  a  very 
special  commission  to  the  Gentile  world.  This  will  explain 
his  points  in  these  verses. 

In  V.  16,  his  words  ^'ministering  the  gospel  of  God" 
suggest  a  service  analogous  to  that  of  the  priests  in  the 
temple  ;  and  this  leads  him  to  think  of  the  Gentiles  as 
themselves  an  "offering  presented  to  God,  made  accepta- 
ble through  the  purifying  agency  of  the  Holy  Gliost. 

17.  I  have  therefore  whereof  I  may  glory  through 
Jesus  Christ  in  those  things  which  pertain  to  God. 

18.  For  I  will  not  dare  to  speak  of  any  of  those 
things  which  Christ  hath  not  wrought  by  me,  to  make 
the  Gentiles  obedient,  by  word  and  deed, 

19.  Through  mighty  signs  and  wonders,  by  the  power 
of  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  so  that  from  Jerusalem,  and  round 
about  unto  Illyricum,  I  have  fully  preached  the  gospel 
of  Christ. 

20.  Yea,  so  have  I  strived  to  preach  the  gospel,  not 
where  Christ  was  named,  lest  I  should  build  upon  another 
man's  foundation : 

21.  But  as  it  is  written.  To  whom  he  was  not  spoken 
of,  they  shall  see  :  and  they  that  have  not  heard  shall  un- 
derstand. 

God  had  really  given  him  great  success  in  preaching  to 
the  Gentiles,  in  which  service  it  had  been  his  aim  and  joy 


-j 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XV.  167 

to  bi'eak  new  ground  continually,  going  where  none  had 
gone  before.  He  had  no  occasion  to  speak  of  what  others 
had  wrought.  His  own  personal  labors,  starting  from 
Jerusalem  on  the  extreme  South  and  East,  had  swept  over 
Asia  Minor,  Ancient  Macedonia  and  Achaia,  to  Illyricum  on 
the  very  borders  of  Italy,  and  almost  to  Home  itself. — His 
quotation  (v.  21)  is  from  Isa.  52  :  15, 

22.  For  which  cause  also  I  have  been  much  hindered 
from  coming  to  you. 

23.  But  now  having  no  more  place  in  these  parts, 
and  having  a  great  desire  these  many  years  to  come 
unto  you ; 

24.  Whensoever  I  take  my  journey  into  Spain,  I 
will  come  to  you  :  for  I  trust  to  see  you  in  my  journey, 
and  to  be  brought  on  my  way  thitherward  by  you,  if 
first  I  be  somewhat  filled  with  your  company. 

These  labors  had  compelled  him  to  postpone  his  long 
cherished  purpose  of  visiting  Rome.  Now  he  has  it  in  his 
plan  to  visit  Spain  and  to  take  Rome  on  his  way.  He 
anticipates  a  spiritual  feast  to  his  soul  among  them. 

25.  But  now  I  go  unto  Jerusalem  to  minister  unto 
the  saints. 

26.  For  it  hath  pleased  them  of  Macedonia  and 
Achaia  to  make  a  certain  contribution  for  the  poor 
saints  which  are  at  Jerusalem. 

27.  It  hath  pleased  them  verily ;  and  their  debtors 
they  are.  For  if  the  Gentiles  have  been  made  partakers 
of  their  spiritual  things,  their  duty  is  also  to  minister 
unto  them  in  carnal  things. 

This  '•  collection  "  made  among  the  churches  of  Mace- 
donia and  Achaia  for  their  needy  brethren  at  Jerusalem, 
held  a  large  place  in  Paul's  thought  and  care,  it  being 
referred  to  repeatedly  in  both  his  epistles  to  Corinth 
(1  Cor.  16  :  1-4  and  2.  Cor.  8  and  9).  Paul  seems  to  have 
assumed  that  the  mother  church  in  her  straits  had  special 
claims  upon  her  vigorous  daughters,  and  supposably  he 
may  have  hoped  by  these  benefactions  to  abate  Jewish 
prejudice  against  Gentile  churches  and  promote  a  larger 
and  warmer  Christian  fellowship.  It  might  have  been — 
ought  to  have  been — a  peace-offering  to  their  chafed  and 


168  ROMANS.— CHAP.  XV. 

but  too  narrow  souls.  Paul  probably  hoped  that  this  offer- 
ing, going  before  and  with  himself,  might  insure  him  a 
more  kind  reception.  We  have  the  result  in  Acts  21  :  17 
and  onward. 

28.  "When  therefore  I  have  performed  this,  and  have 
sealed  to  them  this  fruit,  I  will  come  by  you  into  Spain. 

29.  And  I  am  sure  that,  when  I  come  unto  you,  I 
shall  come-in  the  fulness  of  the  blessing  of  the  gospel  of 
Christ. 

This  plan  for  a  journey  into  Spain  by  way  of  Eome 
I)robably  seemed  to  be  wise  ;  but  the  plan  of  God  put  in  a 
long  and  tedious  captivity  between  Paul's  thought  and 
its  realization.  The  testimony  of  several  early  Fathers 
renders  it  highly  probable  that  during  the  interval  of  some 
five  or  six  years  between  Paul's  first  and  second  imprison- 
ment at  Kome,  he  did  make  this  visit  to  Spain  ;  but  the 
historic  circumstances  and  the  results  are  quite  unknown. 

30.  'Now  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  for  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ's  sake,  and  for  the  love  of  the  Spirit,  that  ye  strive 
together  with  me  in  your  prayers  to  God  for  me  ; 

31.  That  I  may  be  delivered  from  them  that  do  not 
believe  in  Judea ;  and  that  my  service  which  /  have  for 
Jerusalem  may  be  accepted  of  the  saints ; 

32.  That  I  may  come  unto  you  with  joy  by  the  will 
of  God,  and  may  with  you  be  refreshed. 

33.  ISTow  the  God  of  peace  he  with  you  all.     Amen. 

It  was  entirely  approjoriate  for  Paul  to  pray  to  be  de- 
livered from  unbelieving  Jews  in  Judea  and  to  ask  the 
same  prayers  from  his  Christian  friends  at  Kome.  But  it 
was  equally  appropriate  to  bow  submissively  to  his  will 
who  sometimes  fails  to  do  all  we  ask,  or  long  delays  it. — 
God  did  deliver  Paul  from  their  bloody  hands  so  that  his 
life  was  spared ;  and  God  went  with  him,  a  prisoner  to 
Eome,  and  helped  him  to  write  some  grand  Epistles  from 
his  prison  home  in  that  city.  In  how  many  and  what 
points  God  made  all  those  things  work  together  for  good 
to  Paul  and  to  Christ's  kingdom,  it  was  probably  Paul's 
joy  to  enumerate  and  to  measure  after  the  trials  and  the 
disappointment  had  been  been  bravely  borne  ;  for  the  Lord 
is  wont  to  show  his  people  both  that  his  love  never  fails, 
and  that  his  wisdom  will  justify  itself  in  tlie  end. 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XV.  1G9 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

This  chapter  is  made  up  of  personal  salutations,  with 
a  few  closing  admonitions  and  benedictions. 

1.  I  commend  unto  you  Phebe  our  sister,  which  is  a 
servant  of  the  church  which  is  at  Cenchrea : 

2.  That  ye  receive  her  in  the  Lord,  as  becometh 
saints,  and  that  ye  assist  her  in  whatsoever  business  she 
hath  need  of  you  :  for  she  hath  been  a  succourer  of  many, 
and  of  myself  also. 

Cenchrea,  the  Eastern  port  of  Corinth  and  the  outlet 
of  its  Asiatic  trade,  some  nine  miles  distant  from  the  great 
city,  had  at  this  time  a  church  probably  small,  yet  having 
at  least  this  one  deaconess,  Phebe.  Her,  Paul  exhorts 
the  Christians  at  Rome  to  receive  in  the  Lord  in  a  manner 
worthy  of  saints — i.  e.  with  special  love,  confidence  and 
cooperation.  Aid  her  in  whatever  matters  she  may  need 
your  aid,  for  she  has  aided  many  and  myself.  The  pre- 
sumption is  strong  that  the  purpose  of  her  visit  was  rather 
religious  than  secular  :  for  the  help  which  Paul's  verb 
"  assist "  involves  should  be  the  same  as  the  "  succor  "  she 
had  given  to  many  saints  and  to  Paul — the  words  being 
essentially  the  same.  What  special  service  of  Christian 
labor  took  her  to  Rome  cannot  be  known  now.  Her  official 
duties  within  the  home  sphere  are  more  obvious — ministra- 
tions to  the  sick  and  the  suffering  of  her  sex,  from  whom 
pastoi-s  of  the  other  sex  Avere  mostly  debarred  by  the  usages 
of  Oriental  society. 

3.  Greet  Priscilla  and  Aquila,  my  helpers  in  Clirist 
Jesus : 

4.  Who  have  for  my  life  laid  down  their  own  necks : 
unto  whom  not  only  I  give  thanks,  but  also  all  the 
churches  of  the  Gentiles. 

5.  Likewise  greet  the  church  that  is  in  their  house. 
Salute  my  well  beloved  Epenetus,  who  is  the  firstfruits 
of  Achaia  unto  Christ. 

This  family  Prisca  (or  Priscilla)  and  Aquila,  we  may 
trace  from  Rome  to  Corinth,  (Acts  18:  1,  %);  thence  to 
Ephesus  (Acts  18:  26);  and  now  again  at  Rome.     They 


170  ROMANS.— CHAP   XVI. 

followed  the  business  of  tent-manufacture — which  was 
doubtless  good  in  any  of  those  cities.  The  history  shows 
us  Paul,  at  home  in  their  house  and  shop,  and  preaching 
(we  may  suppose)  to  the  church  which  met  in  their  house. 
— Here  Paul  says  of  them  that  they  had  put  their  own  lives 
in  jeopardy  for  his  (very  probably  at  Ephesus) — so  that 
not  himself  only  but  all  the  churches  were  under  great  obli- 
gations of  gratitude  for  their  self-sacrificing  service. 

6.  Greet  Mary,  who  bestowed  much  labor  on  us. 

7.  Salute  Andi-onicus  aud  Junia,  my  kinsmen,  and  my 
fellow  prisoners,  who  are  of  note  among  the  apostles, 
who  also  were  in  Christ  before  me. 

8.  Greet  Amplias,  my  beloved  in  the  Lord. 

9.  Salute  Urbane,  our  helper  in  Christ,  and  Stachjs 
my  beloved. 

10.  Salute  Apelles  approved  in  Christ.  Salute  them 
which  are  of  Aristobulus'  household. 

11.  Salute  Herodion  my  kinsman.  Greet  them  that 
be  of  the  household  of  I^arcissus  which  are  in  the  Lord. 

12.  Salute  Tryi^hena  and  Trypliosa,  who  labor  in  the 
Lord.  Salute  the  beloved  Persis,  which  labored  mucTi  in 
the  Lord. 

13.  Salute  Kufus  chosen  in  the  Lord,  and  his  mother 
and  mine. 

14.  Salute  Asyncritus,  Phlegon,  Hernias,  Patrobas, 
Hermes,  and  the  brethren  which  are  with  them. 

15.  Salute  Pliilologus,  and  Julia,  ISTereus,  and  his  sis- 
ter, and  Olympas,  and  all  the  saints  which  are  with 
them. 

16.  Salute  one  another  with  a  holy  kiss.  The  churches 
of  Christ  salute  you. 

Of  this  numerous  list  of  brethren  and  sisters  it  must 
suffice  to  say,  Their  great  number  testifies  that  Rome 
must  have  had  a  large  floating  population,  for  at  this  time 
Paul  had  not  been  in  Rome,  and  therefore  must  have  made 
their  personal  acquaintance  at  other  points  in  Greece, 
Macedonia,  or  Asia.  Incidentally  it  shows  that  Paul  had 
fine  social  qualities,  being  careful  to  hnoio  and  not  forget 
nor  ever  cease  to  love  the  brethren  and  sisters  who  labored 


ROMANS.— CHAP.  XVI.  171 

with  him  in  christian  work,  many  of  whom  may  have  been 
converted  under  his  labor. 

17.  ISTow  I  beseceli  you,  brethren,  mark  them  which 
cause  divisions  and  offences  contrary  to  the  doctrine  which 
ye  have  learned ;  and  avoid  them. 

18.  For  they  that  are  such  serve  not  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  but  their  own  belly ;  and  by  good  words  and  fair 
speeches  deceive  the  hearts  of  the  simple. 

19.  For  your  obedience  is  come  abroad  unto  all  men. 
I  am  glad  therefore  on  your  behalf:  but  yet  I  would 
have  yon  wise  unto  that  which  is  good,  and  simple  con- 
cerning evil. 

Mark  and  avoid  the  selfish,  self-seeking  men  who  are 
ever  prone  to  work  up  divisions  and  cause  offences — all 
alien  to  the  christian  doctrine  they  had  been  taught — 
men  who  were  not  serving  Christ  but  their  own  appetites. — 
Tills  word  "  belly  "  gives  at  least  their  general  character  as 
sensual  and  basely  selfish — perhaps  including  other  low 
propensities  besides  that  for  the  luxuries  of  the  table. — 
Tonguey  men  they  were — of  fair  words  but  base  spirit.  The 
church  at  Eome  being  a  city  on  a  hill,  Paul  was  especially 
anxious  that  their  record  should  be  pure,  not  defiled  by 
low,  sensual,  mischief-making  aspirants  for  distinction. 

20.  And  the  God  of  peace  shall  bruise  Satan  under 
your  feet  shortly.  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
he  with  you.     Amen. 

"The  God  of  peace" — so  called  here  as  having  no 
sympathy  with  the  base  men  who  artfully  work  up  factions 
in  the  church, — "  Will  bruise  Satan  " — ever  at  the  bottom 
of  all  church  troubles — ''under  your  feet  shortly."  The 
words  come  from  Gen.  3:  15  ;  "  Iler  seed  shall  bruise  thy 
head" — that  of  the  old  serpent  whom  Paul  identifies  with 
Satan. 

21.  Timotheus  my  worlcf ellow,  and  Lucius,  and  Jason, 
and  Sosipater,  my  kinsmen,  salute  you. 

22.  I  Tertius,  who  wrote  this  epistle,  salute  you  in 
the  Lord. 

23.  Gains  mine  host,  and  of  the  whole  church,  salut- 


172  ROMANS.— CHAP.  XVI. 

etli  you.     Erastus  the  cliamberlain  of  tlie  city  salutetli 
yon,  and  Quartus  a  brother. 

24.  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  he  with  you 
alL     Amen. 

This  group  were  Paul's  then  present  companions.  We 
read  of  Grains  (presumably)  in  1  Cor.  1:  14  as  one  of  the 
very  few  whom  Paul  had  baptized  himself.  Ilis  Christian 
hospitality  Avas  his  distinction  and  his  high  honor. 

25.  ]^ow  to  him  that  is  of  power  to  stablish  you  ac- 
cording to  my  gospel,  and  the  preaching  of  Jesus  Christ, 
according  to  the  revelation  of  the  mystery,  which  was 
kept  secret  since  the  world  began, 

26.  But  now  is  made  manifest,  and  by  the  scriptures 
of  the  prophets,  according  to  the  commandment  of  the 
everlasting  God,  made  known  to  all  nations  for  obedience 
of  faith :  " 

27.  To  God  only  wise,  he  glory  through  Jesus  Christ 
forever.     Amen. 

1"  Written  to  the  Eomans  from  Corinthus,  ajid  sent 
by  Phebe  servant  of  the  church  at  Cenchrea. 

This  closing  doxology  to  God  only  wise  groups  with 
exquisite  beauty  and  force  many  of  the  grand  elements  of 
the  gospel.  This  great  God  has  all  power  to  establish  you 
according  to  the  gospel  I  preach.  This  gospel  unfolds  that 
mystery  long  unuttered,  but  now  brought  forth  to  light  by 
the  prophetic  scriptures  under  direction  of  the  eternal  God 
and  made  known  among  all  the  Gentiles  to  bring  them  to 
the  faith  of  Christ— -To  this  God  of  infinite  wisdom  and 
matchless  love,  through  Jesus  Christ,  be  glory  forever  and 
ever.    Amen. 

The  central  thought  here  is  the  revelation  of  the  long 
unknown  gospel  of  salvation  for  the  race,  by  no  means  ex- 
cluding, but  rather  specially  including  all  the  Gentile  world. 
Upon  this  theme,  Paul's  tongue  and  pen  never  tire.  \i 
lifts  his  soul  to  sublimest  thanksgivings  and  grandest  dox- 
ologies.  A  gospel  for  the  nations  !  What  could  be  more 
sublime  ! 


-i 


FIRST  EPISTLE  TO  THE 
CORINTHIANS. 


INTKODUCTION. 

As  preliminary  to  the  study  of  this  epistle  it  will  be 
helpful  to  the  reader  to  have  in  mind  definite  ideas  on 
these  points ;  viz. 

I.  Corinth  itself ;  its  geography  and  history  : 

II.  The  history  of  this  church ;  its  planting ;  the 
materials  which  composed  it  and  their  prominent  charac- 
teristics : 

III.  The  date  of  the  epistle  and  the  jij?rt(?c  where  writ- 
ten : 

IV.  The  topics  of  which  it  treats  and  the  occasion  for 
treating  them. 

I.    Corinth — its  geography  and  history. 

Corinth  is  situated  on  a  celebrated  isthmus  which  con- 
nects Peloponnesus  (otherwise  called  the  Morea) — the  old 
province  of  Achaia — with  the  continent ;  having  the 
Saronic  gulf  opening  into  the  ^gean  Sea  on  the  East,  and 
the  Corinthian  gulf  opening  into  the  Ionian  Sea  on  the 
West.  This  peculiar  geographic  position  led  Pindar  to 
call  it  "  the  bridge  of  the  sea,"  and  Zenophon — '•  The 
gate  of  the  Peloponnesus."  Both  in  the  military  and  in 
the  commercial  point  of  view,  it  was  and  naturally  must 
have  been  one  of  the  great  cities  of  Ancient  Greece.  It 
rivalled  Athens  in  learning  and  culture,  and  surpassed  it 
in  wealth,  luxury,  and  the  resulting  vices.  But  the  Cor- 
inth with  which  our  epistle  has  to  do  is  not  the  ancient 
Grecian  city,  but  the  Roman  city  rebuilt  by  Julius  Cesar. 
The  Eoman  Corinth  still  retained  its  commercial  advan- 
tages, and  consequently  its  great  and  rich  population. 
Lying  in  the  same  great  tlioroughfare  of  trade  and  travel 
with  Ephesus  and  having  constant  communication  by  sea 


174  INTRODUCTION. 

with  that  great  city  of  Asia,  its  importance  can  scarcely  be 
overestimated.  These  circumstances  conspired  to  make  it 
one  of  Paul's  strategic  points — to  be  seized  at  all  hazards 
and  held  at  any  cost  for  Christ  and  his  kingdom.  Cen- 
chrea,  its  eastern  harbor,  nine  miles  distant,  comes  to  view 
as  the  site  of  a  church  (perhaps  small)  of  which  Phebe 
(Rom.  16:  1)  was  a  deaconess. 

II.  History  of  the  church,  its  materials  ;  and  jJrominent 
characteristics. 

Luke  (Acts  18:  1-18)  gives  a  brief  sketch  of  Paul's  first 
gospel  labors  in  this  city.  It  was  on  his  second  great  mis- 
sionary tour — (the  first  which  brought  him  into  Europe), 
and  after  he  had  planted  churches  at  Philippi  and  at  Thes- 
salonica,  and  touched  at  Berea  and  Athens,  that  he  came 
to  Corinth  and  there  sat  down  to  long  and  earnest  mis- 
sionary work  in  that  populous  but  wicked  city.  With  one 
or  more  short  intermissions  he  spent  here  one  year  and  six 
months.  As  usual  he  began  by  ''reasoning  in  the  syna- 
gogue every  Sabbath,  persuading  the  Jews  and  the  Greeks; 
but  when  they  (the  Jews)  opposed  and  blasphemed,  Paul 
shook  his  raiment  and  said  to  them ;  your  blood  be  upon 
your  own  heads  ;  I  am  clear  :  from  henceforth  I  will  go  to 
the  Gentiles  "  (Acts  IS:  4-8). 

Thus  in  the  spring  of  A.  D.  52,  five  years  before  the 
date  of  tbis  epistle,  tbc  foundations  of  this  church  at 
Corinth  were  laid,  its  constituent  elements  being  in  small 
part  Jews,  but  in  greater  part  Gentiles.  Here  he  first 
met  the  celebrated  Priscilla  and  Aquila,  then  recently 
driven  out  from  Eome  (Acts  18:  2),  and  made  their  house 
his  home  and  their  worksliop  his  place  of  manual  labor 
and  main  source  of  self-support.  Here  Silas  and  Timothy 
soon  joined  him  ;  Apollo  also  at  a  later  period;  so  that 
Paul's  missionary  work  at  Corinth  was  strongly  sustained 
by  these  efficient  fellow  laborers. 

The  luxury  and  lasciviousness  that  reigned  in  Corinth 
left  their  traces  upon  the  young  converts  of  this  church, 
sadly  apparent  in  this  epistle  in  the  case  of  incest  (chap. 
5),  and  in  the  frequent  admonition  to  ''  flee  fornication," 
Apparently  the  same  elements  of  general  character  gave 
occasion  to  those  special  questions  sent  to  Paul,  which  he 
answered  in  chap.  7. 

Greek  culture  developing  itself  into  the  passion  and 
pride  of  human  philosophy  (••  wisdom")  and  tending  to- 


INTRODUCTION.  175 

ward  a  very  unworthy  depreciation  of  Paul  and  the  simple 
gospel  of  the  cross  which  he  preached,  left  very  distinct 
traces  upon  the  early  history  of  this  church  and  give  their 
color  to  many  passages  of  our  epistle.  The  manifest  am- 
bition for  such  distinction  as  might  be  reached  through 
supernatural  gifts  (tongues ;  the  prophetic  foresight)  had 
its  root  in  the  same  Grecian  society. 

To  the  envious,  hard,  bigoted  spirit  of  the  Jew  we  may 
doubtless  ascribe  in  no  small  degree  the  detraction  and  tlio 
incessant  counter-working  of  Paul  which  come  to  light  re- 
peatedly in  these  epistles. 

These  and  similar  elements  in  the  society  of  Corintli 
made  Paul's  labors  then  peculiarly  severe  and  trying  ;  but 
at  the  same  time  they  develop  in  his  character  those  mar- 
vellous qualities — humility,  self-sacrifice,  devotion  to  Christ 
and  his  work,  coupled  with  shrewdness  and  a  noble  manli- 
ness which  no  amount  of  detraction,  slander  and  meanness 
could  over-ride  or  overcome. — All  in  all,  these  epistles  give 
us  an  admirable  study  not  only  of  the  gospel  when  brought 
into  contact  with  culture,  wealth,  and  the  deepest  social 
and  moral  corruption,  but  of  the  great  man  whom  the  Lord 
raised  up  to  be  the  herald  of  this  gospel,  and  one  of  the 
noblest  examples  of  sanctified  intellect  and  heart  which  has 
ever  blessed  our  world. 

III.  The  date  of  this  epistle  is  usually  assigned  to  A.  D. 
57.  That  celebrated  "  collection  for  the  poor  saints  in 
Jerusalem"  (16:  1)  ;  Paul's  great  efforts  in  making  it  and 
then  in  transmitting  the  avails  safely  to  their  destination, 
help  us  to  fix  proximately  the  date  of  this  writing — near 
the  close  of  his  three  years'  labor  at  Ephesus.  Of  course  the 
same  circumstances  suffice  to  mark  the  lAace.  The  com- 
mercial relations  between  Ephesus  and  Corinth  account  for 
the  facility  of  communication  between  these  cities.  Paul 
at  Ephesus  might  hear  often  and  very  definitely  from  his 
church  at  Corinth. 

IV.  The  topics  he  treated  and  the  occasion  for  treating 
them. 

In  its  subject-matter,  this  Epistle  is  remarkably  miscel- 
laneous, treating  a  considerable  number  of  topics  quite 
distinct  from  each  other,  yet  each  very  definitely  indicated 
and  in  most  cases  at  least  its  occasion  distinctly  stated. 

Thus,  first ;  news  coming  to  him  through  some  of 
the  family  of  Chloe  that  sectarian  contentions  were  spring- 


176  INTRODUCTION. 

ing  up  there  (1  :  1,  3)  occasioned  the  discussions  which 
fill  the  first  four  Chapters.  With  marvellous  skill  and 
depth  of  thought,  as  we  shall  see,  Paul  goes  fundamentally 
into  this  subject,  laboring  to  draw  their  attention  to  the 
pure  simplicity  of  the  gospel  scheme  to  show  that  its  one 
only  center  of  power  is  in  the  Divine  Spirit  wielding  the 
very  truth  of  God,  and  that  human  instruments  are  rela- 
tively of  quite  insignificant  importance. 

Next  stands  the  sad  case  of  incest  in  their  church  which 
came  to  him  by  public  rumor — a  thing  of  common  report. 
This  forms  the  subject  directly  of  chap.  5.  and  indirectly 
of  a  part  of  chap.  (3.  Special  questions  sent  to  Paul  in 
writing  on  the  kindred  subject  of  the  marital  relations 
become  the  theme  of  chap.  7. — Chap's.  8  and  10,  discuss 
questions  of  conscience  which  sprang  up  in  that  idol- 
Avorshipping  city  over  the  point  of  eating  flesh  that  had 
been  or  might  have  been  offered  to  an  idol.  Between  these 
two,  chap.  9.  digresses  to  speak  of  his  personal  relations 
to  that  church  in  the  line  of  material  support. — Chaps. 
11-14  treat  in  general  of  the  methods  and  proprieties  of 
religious  worship  in  their' church  assemblies,  including  their 
flagrant  abuse  of  the  love-feast  and  of  the  Lord's  supper  ; 
a  very  full  discussion  of  "  spiritual  gifts,"  bestowed  va- 
riously in  that  age  upon  the  churches — a  subject  which 
gave  him  occasion  to  introduce  as  an  episode  that  admira- 
ble chapter  on  Christian  love  (chap.  13),  as  being  beyond 
compare  '•' the  more  excellent  way  " — a  gift  which  should 
command  the  supreme  aspirations  of  every  Christian. — ■ 
The  resurrection,  denied  it  would  seem  by  some  at  Corinth, 
forms  the  sublime  theme  of  chap.  15,  while  chap.  16  ap- 
propriately closes  the  epistle  with  words  about  the  collec- 
tion for  the  poor  at  Jerusalem,  about  his  own  plans  of 
labor  and  those  of  his  associates — with  salutations  and 
benedictions. 


FIRST  EPISTLE  TO  THE 
CORINTHIANS. 


CHAPTEE  I. 


After  the  customary  address  (v.  1-3)  Paul  thanks  God 
for  his  abundant  grace  bestowed  on  them  (v.  4-9)  ;  then 
comes  to  the  main  theme  of  the  chapter — their  divisions 
of  sectarian  sort  (v.  10-12)  which  he  proceeds  to  discuss 
and  rebuke,  especially  in  their  relations  to  himself  (v. 
13-16)  ;  also  in  view  of  their  origin  in  the  passion  for 
worldly  wisdom  and  science  (v.  17-31)  ;  that  the  Jewish 
demand  for  miracles  and  the  Corinthian  passion  for  wis- 
dom led  both  widely  astray  from  Christ,  the  central  thing 
in  the  gospel  (v.  22-25)  ;  that  God's  call  found  congenial 
hearts,  not  among  the  proud  but  the  lowly,  (v.  26-29)  ; 
but  under  the  gospel  scheme,  all  best,  richest,  most  blessed 
things  come  from  God  through  Christ  (y.  30,31). 

1.  Paul,  called  to  he  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ 
through  the  will  of  God,  and  Sosthenes  oui'  brother, 

2.  Unto  the  church  of  God  which  is  at  Corinth,  to 
them  that  are  sanctified  in  Christ  Jesus,  called  to  he 
saints,  with  all  that  in  every  place  call  npon  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  both  theirs  and  ours : 

3.  Grace  he  unto  you,  and  peace,  from  God  our  Father, 
^xAfrom  the  Lord  Jesus  Chi-ist. 

The  topics  treated  in  this  epistle  made  it  necessary  for 
Paul  to  speak  of  himself  as  one  called  to  the  apostleship 
by  Christ  himself — invested  therefore  with  an  authority 
which  modesty  must  not  suppress. 

With  himself  he  associates  Sosthenes  "  ?'7i0  brother" 
(Greek) — probably  in  the  sense — the  brother  well  known 
among  you.  — Was  this  the  same  man  who  appears  under 


178  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  I. 

this  name  ia  Acts  18  :  17  ? — The  circumstance  that  Luke 
makes  his  name  prominent  in  his  history  of  the  planting 
of  this  church,  and  the  further  fact  that  Paul  introduces 
him  with  no  other  description  except  *'  the  brother,"  render 
tliis  identity  probable,  yet  not  perhaps  certain. — If  he  was 
the  same  man,  we  must  suppose  him  to  have  been  converted 
early  from  his  intense  Judaism  to  Chi'istianity.  For  in 
Luke's  narrative  he  is  the  ruler  of  the  synagogue  and  ap- 
parently was  heading  the  persecution  against  Paul.  When 
Gallio  quashed  all  legal  proceedings  against  the  apostle  as 
not  coming  Avithin  his  jurisdiction,  the  Greeks,  in  sym- 
pathy witli  Paul,  or  at  least  indignant  against  his  malicious 
persecutors,  seized  upon  this  Sosthenes  and  beat  him  ; 
which  rough  usage  Gallio,  as  a  civil  officer,  refused  to 
notice. 

If  this  was  the  same  man  who  is  here''  the  brother," 
his  change,  like  that  in  Paul,  was  wrought  by  the  power  of 
God  which  often  shows  itself  equal  to  such  transformations. 

Notice  that  Paul  writes  this  letter  from  Ephesus  iu  the 
spring  of  5?,  five  years  after  the  scenes  of  Acts  18,  Sosthe- 
nes being  then  with  him"  in  that  eastern  city.  Yet  this 
by  no  means  forbids  his  identity  with  the  Sosthenes  who 
was  ruler  of  the  synagogue  in  Corinth  five  years  before.  The 
two  cities  must  have  had  intimate  mutual  relations — men 
in  business  occasionally  changing  their  residence  from  one 
to  the  other — a  fact  illustrated  in  the  case  of  Priscilla  and 
Aquila. 

Observe  (v.  2)  that  while  this  letter  is  addressed  par- 
ticularly to  the  church  at  Corinth,  Paul  associates  with 
them  ''all  the  saints  in  every  place,"  designated  here  as 
"  those  who  call  on  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord," 
prayer  to  Christ  as  Lord  [and  God]  being  the  very  noticea- 
ble characteristic  of  Christians  trained  under  the  apostles. 
The  martyr  Stephen  was  an  early  example  of  prayer  so  ad- 
dressed (Acts  7  :  59) — The  fact  indicates  their  practical 
views  of  Christ's  real  divinity.* 

The  "grace  and  peace"  which  his  benediction  implores 
for  them,  he  seeks  and  expects  equally  from  "  God  our 
Father  and  from  Jesus  Christ  the  Lord." 

*  The  celebrated  letter  of  the  vouno^er  Pliny,  Governor  of  the 
province  of  Bythinia,  to  Trajan  (AD.  107)  says  that  the  Christians 
"  were  accustomed  to  meet  on  a  stated  day  before  light  and  chant 
among  themselves  in  turn  a  hymn  to  Christ  as  to  God." 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  I.  179 

4.  I  tliaiik  my  God  always  on  your  behalf,  for  tlie 
grace  of  God  wliicli  is  given  you  by  Jesus  Christ ; 

5.  That  in  every  thing  ye  are  enriched  by  him,  in  all 
utterance,  and  in  all  knowledge ; 

6.  Even  as  the  testimony  of  Christ  was  confirmed  in 
you : 

7.  So  that  ye  come  behind  in  no  gift ;  waiting  for  the 
coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ : 

8.  Who  shall  also  confirm  you  unto  the  end,  that  ye 
may  he  blameless  in  the  day  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

9.  God  is  faithful,  by  whom  ye  were  called  unto  the 
fellowship  of  his  Son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

We  must  suppose  that  at  this  moment  there  lay  before 
Paul's  mind,  the  many  grievous  abuses  of  these  spiritual 
gifts  which  he  must  needs  rebuke  ;  tlieir  unhallowed  am- 
bition to  surpass  each  other,  especially  in  those  gifts  which 
were  in  highest  repute  in  cultured  Corinth.  Yet  Paul's 
practical  wisdom  suggested  to  him  this  fine  prelude  to  those 
words  of  admonition,  in  which  he  thanks  God  in  their  be- 
half for  these  pre-eminent  gifts  and  rejoices  with  them  that 
God  had  blessed  them  so  abundantly  that  they  fell  behind 
in  nothing.  Surely  men  so  richly  blessed  ought  to  be 
scrupulously  careful  not  to  abuse  them  !  The  conscious- 
ness of  such  mercies  from  God  should  banish  pride  and  im- 
press profound  humility. 

The  apostle's  testimony  for  Christ  had  been  confirmed 
among  them  by  the  full  measure  of  supernatural  manifes- 
tations.— Noticeably  also  they  had  learned  to  live  under  a 
near  and  solemnly  impressive  sense  of  the  coming  of  their 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. — This  allusion  to  Christ's  coming  and 
to  their  waiting  for  it  does  not  necessarily  imply  that  they 
assumed  it  to  be  near  in  calendar  time  as  measured  in 
months  and  years  ;  but  does  imply  that  this  coming  was  a 
living  fact  in  their  Christian  thought — a  truth  held  sol- 
emnly near  to  their  souls.  The  great  fact  of  this  coming 
suggested  that  this  same  Lord  Jesus  would  confirm  them 
to  the  end  of  life  and  present  them  blameless  (subject  to  no 
condemnation)  in  the  great  and  sweetly  expected  day  of 
Christ.  God  who  is  faithful  had  pledged  this  to  them  in  the 
very  fact  of  calling  them  into  fellowship  with  his  Son. 

10.  I*^ow  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  by  the  name  of  our 


180  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  I, 

Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  ye  all  speak  the  same  thing,  and 
that  there  be  no  divisions  among  you ;  but  that  ye  be 
perfectly  joined  together  in  the  same  mind  and  in  tlie 
same  judgment. 

11.  For  it  hath  been  declared  unto  me  of  you,  my 
brethren,  by  them  lohich  are  of  the  house  of  Chloe,  that 
there  are  contentions  among  you. 

12.  Now  this  I  say,  that  every  one  of  you  saith,  I 
am  of  Paul ;  and  I  of  Apollos ;  and  I  of  Cephas ;  and  I 
of  Christ. 

Here  Paul  introduces  one  of  the  crying  sins  of  Corinth, 
which  occasioned  this  epistle  viz.^i\\Q  dangerous,  vicious 
tendency  to  schism  in  the  church.  By  members  of  the 
family  of  Chloe,  he  has  heard  that  there  are  grave  conten- 
tions and  strifes  among  them.  To  make  the  case  entirely 
specific,  he  adds — This  is  what  1  refer  to  (v.  12)  :  One  is 
saying  I  am  of  Paul  (a  Pauhte)  ;  another,  I  of  Apollos  ; 
another,  I  of  Cephas  [Peter]  ;  another,  I  of  Christ : — four 
parties  each  ranging  itself  under  the  proud  name  of  its 
chosen  leader. 

In  the  outset  Paul  earnestly  beseeches  them  by  all  that 
is  sacred  in  tlie  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  that  they 
all  speak  the  same  thing,  rally  under  the  same  hallowed 
name  and  no  other  ;  that  there  be  no  schism,  no  sectarian 
parties,  no  rending  asunder  of  the  one  sacred  body  of  Christ 
(the  living  church).  But  that  ye  be  ijcrfected  in  the  same 
Christian  thought  [nous]  and  in  the  same  opinions. — Thus 
Paul  exhorts  to  harmony  of  Christian  sentiment ;  to  union 
in  their  Christian  activities  ;  to  a  mutual  sympathy  in  their 
Christian  heart. 

Was  it  the  abuse  of  criticism,  or  was  it  rather  the  scope 
given  to  worldly,  ungodly  ambition,  that  developed  into 
this  rallying  under  their  i'avoi-ite  leaders  ?  Be  the  special 
impulse  what  it  may,  it  was  unchristian  ;  it  was  perilous, 
not  to  that  church  only  but  to  all  the  churches  of  that  age. 
Therefore  Paul  lost  no  time  in  making  his  solemn  and  ear- 
nest protest  against  it. — There  is  not  the  least  reason  to 
suppose  that  these  honored  men  had  been  heading  this  sec- 
tarian moment.  Paul  was  more  than  innocent  of  any  am- 
bition to  head  a  party  against  Apollos,  Peter,  or  Christ. 
There  is  not  the  slightest  ground  to  suspect  this  of  Apollos, 
or  of  Peter.     If  these  strono-  men  had  lent  themselves  to 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  I.  181 

foster  this  movement,  the  result  must  have  been  fearful ! 
We  have  reason  to  bless  God  that  for  a  season  at  least,  the 
churches  were  spared  the  terrible  curse  of  sectarianism, 
launched  upon  them  by  men  of  commanding  but  divisive 
influence. 

It  is  supposable  that  the  eloquence  of  Apollos  gave  him 
popularity  with  the  more  cultivated  classes,  and  thus  made 
him  the  innocent  occasion  of  one  of  these  parties.  Also, 
that  the  well  known  proclivities  of  Peter  toward  the  an- 
cient Jewish  ritual  may  have  served  to  place  his  name  at 
the  head  of  a  pro- Jewish  faction,  while  for  obvious  reasons, 
Paul  would  have  some  stanch  friends  to  lift  up  his  name. 
Yet  others  whose  better  heart  recoiled  from  this  idolatry  of 
human  names  would  rally  under  none  other  name  but  that 
of  Christ.  But  it  is  one  thing  to  account  for  sectarian  divi- 
sions, and  quite  another  thing  to  justify  them.  This  was 
Paul's  opinion. 

13.  Is  Christ  divided?  was  Paul  cnicified  for  you? 
or  were  ye  baptized  in  the  name  of  Paul  ? 

14.  1  thank  God  that  I  baptized  none  of  you,  but 
Crispus  and  Gains ; 

15.  Lest  any  should  say  that  I  had  baptized  in  mine 
own  name. 

16.  And  I  baptized  also  the  household  of  Stephanas : 
besides,  I  know  not  whether  I  baptized  any  other. 

''  Is  Christ  divided  ?  " — that  there  should  be  one  Christ 
for  the  Paul  faction ;  another  Christ  for  the  Apollos  party; 
and  yet  another  for  those  who  flung  out  the  banner  of 
Peter  ? — This  question  strikes  at  the  very  root  of  sectarian 
divisions.  For  what  is  a  Christian  sect  with  no  Christ  in 
it  ?  •  And  by  what  right  shall  one  Christian  sect  appropri- 
ate the  whole  of  Christ,  leaving  none  of  him  to  any  other 
sect  ? — Moreover  if  each  sect  makes  its  own  exclusive  indi- 
visible claim  to  Christ  as  its  own  Lord  and  Saviour,  how 
shall  Christ  be  divided  and  each  sect  be  accommodated  with 
a  Christ  of  its  own  ? — This  is  manifestly  the  logic  of  Paul. 
So  this  original  proposition  to  establish  sectarian  divisions 
in  the  one  christian  church  struck  his  mind. 

We  may  follow  his  logical  thought  yet  further.  Notice- 
ablyj  he  expands  his  views  by  discussing  the  case  over  his 
own  name.     Very  skilfully,  he  forbears  to  assail  the  party 


182  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  I. 

of  Apollos  or  the  party  of  Peter ;  says  not  a  word  about  the 
folly  of  those  who  saw  fit  to  rally  under  those  rival  names  ; 
but  proceeds  to  debate  the  main  question  upon  the  sup- 
posed case  of  the  Paulites. — Ye  who  say,  I  am  for  Paul, 
tell  me  ;  Was  Paul  crucified  for  you  ?  Do  ye  take  him 
for  your  atonina;  sacrifice  and  put  him  in  the  place  which 
Jesus  only  can  fill  ?  Would  you  give  to  Paul  the  allegiance, 
the  homage,  the  love,  the  service,  due  to  Christ  only  ?" 

"Were  ye  baptized  into  the  name  of  Paul  ?" — i.e.  did 
your  baptism  pledge  you  to  follow  Paul  as  your  supreme 
Head,  your  high  and  ever  honored  Lord  and  King  ?  [The 
reader  should  not  fail  to  note  this  admirable  exposition  of 
the  true  sense  of  being  baptized  into  another's  name — i.e. 
that  it  committed  the  party  baptized  to  follow  this  person- 
age in  obedience,  love  and  trust.  It  was  the  solemn  eternal 
vow  of  fidelity  to  the  cause,  the  interest,  the  name  of  this 
supreme  Leader]. 

Paul  may  have  thought  much  of  the  virtue  of  this  rite 
of  baptism.  He  does  not  perhaps  mean  to  say  how  much 
or  little  he  prized  it ;  but  one  thing  he  does  say  very  plainly 
— viz.  that  he  made  no  great  account  of  administering  the 
rite  himself.  Like  his  Great  Master,  he  did  not  make  him- 
self prominent  in  the  ritual  administration.  He  even 
thanked  God  that  he  had  personally  baptized  just  two  men 
only  in  Corinth,  and  besides  those,  one  household  ;  he 
could  not  recal  any  other.  Rather  a  slim  record  for  a 
bishop  of  the  ritualistic  class.  Earely  would  such  an  one 
present  such  a  record  and  withal,  thank  God  that  it  was 
no  larger,  no  more  imposing  I — 'The  special  felicity  of  this 
record  in  his  case  was  that  no  man  in  Corinth  could  say 
with  the  least  plausibility  that  Paul  baptized  his  converts 
into  his  own  name.  They  could  not  say  that  he  figured  for 
building  up  a  sect  of  Paulites.  Nothing  could  be  more 
abhorrent  to  his  soul  than  such  intriguing  for  self-glorifica- 
tion. 

17.  For  Christ  sent  me  not  to  baptize,  but  to  preach 
the  gospel :  not  vritli  the  wisdom  of  words,  lest  the  cross 
of  Christ  should  be  made  of  none  effect. 

18.  For  the  preaching  of  the  cross  is  to  them  that 
perish,  foolishness ;  but  unto  us  which  are  saved,  it  is 
the  power  of  God. 

19.  For  it  is  written,  I  will  destroy  the  wisdom  of 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  I.  18-3 

tlie  wise,  and  will  bring  to  nothing  the  understanding  of 
the  pnident. 

20.  Where  is  the  wise  ?  where  is  the  scribe  ?  where 
is  the  disputer  of  this  world  ?  hath  not  God  made  fool- 
ish the  wisdom  of  this  world  ? 

21.  For  after  that  in  the  wisdom  of  God  the  world 
by  wisdom  knew  not  God,  it  pleased  God  by  the  foolish- 
ness of  preaching  to  save  them  that  believe. 

In  this  matter  Paul  followed  closely  the  spirit  of  his 
commission,  which  was,  not  so  much  to  baptize  as  to  preach 
the  very  gospel.  It  was  not  to  count  converts  upon  the 
baptismal  roll,  but  to  bring  sinners  to  the  knowledge  of 
Christ  and  him  crucified. 

He  noAV  proceeds  to  another  point,  viz.  the  style  of 
his  preaching  as  related  to  the  cultured  philosophy,  wis- 
dom and  eloquence  which  the  Greeks  held  in  so  great  esteem. 
He  declares  that  he  sought  not  these  fascinations  of  style 
and  manner  because  he  feared  to  eclipse  the  glory  and  the 
power  of  the  simple,  naked  cross  of  Christ.  His  chosen 
word  ("'made  of  none  effect")  suggests  emptying  the  cross 
of  its  intrinsic  virtue  ;  palsying  and  paralyzing  its  spiritual 
power.  For  to  the  men  who  are  to  be  saved  thereby,  the 
cross  is  one  thing ;  to  the  men  who  are  to  be  lost  despite  of 
it,  it  is  entirely  another  thing.  To  the  former  it  is  the 
jjoioer  of  God — so  felt  consciously  in  their  own  souls  :  to 
the  latter  it  is  foolishness,  having  none  of  the  attractions  of 
Grecian  wisdom,  and  nothing  indeed  to  commend  it  to 
their  taste. — Let  it  be  noticed  also ;  This  gospel  met  no 
deep-felt  conscious  want,  as  in  morally  hungry,  sin-stricken 
soLils,  for  the  good  reason  that  this  sense  of  want  was  not 
there.  Their  souls  were  far  from  being  morally  hungry. 
Where  consciousness  of  sin  should  be  was  a  blank  in  their 
moral  nature.  For  all  these  reasons,  there  was  no  beauty 
in  Christ  that  they  should  desire  him,  and  no  glory  in  his 
cross  to  their  dull  moral  vision. 

In  the  scripture  (Isa.  29:  14)  from  which  Paul  took  his 
words,  the  Septuagint  gives  the  passage  a  turn  which  brings 
the  agency  of  God  into  bolder  prominence; — not  as  our 
auth.  ver.  has  it ; — "  For  the  wisdom  of  their  wise  men 
shall  perish,"  but — "  I  will  destroy  the  wisdom  of  the  wise 
I  will  put  out  of  sight  the  wisdom  of  the  intelligent." — 


ISi  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  I. 

This  general  sentiment  seemed  to  have  special  attraction 
for  our  Lord,  as  we  see  in  Matt.  11:  35,  26. 

The  wisdom  of  the  Greek,  arrayed  against  the  simplic- 
ity of  the  gospel,  was  profoundly  proud  and  self-asserting  ; 
but  noticeably,  Paul  cowers  not  before  its  high  and  arrogant 
pretensions.  Eather  he  turns  the  table  upon  it  and  sub- 
limely demands;  "Where  is  the  Grecian  wise  man  who 
would  fain  match  his  wisdom  against  God's  ?  Where  is 
the  Jewish  scribe,  whose  learning  seems  to  himself  to  over- 
shadow the  simple  doctrines  of  the  cross  ?  Hath  not  God 
turned  all  their  boasted  wisdom  into  folly  by  displaying  the 
infinitely  higher,  grander  glory  and  efficiency  of  his  gos- 
pel ? — The  relative  value  of  these  rival  systems  must  in  rea- 
son be  tested  by  their  fruits.  Where  are  the  men  whose 
souls  the  wisdom  of  Greece  or  the  learning  of  Jewish  scribes 
has  availed  to  save  ? — But  God  has  glorified  his  gospel  and 
his  Son  by  making  the  preaching  of  his  gospel  the  power 
of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  believing  soul. — After  long 
ages  of  experiment  (v.  21.)  in  which  God  wisely  allowed 
human  wisdom  most  ample  range  and  time  to  find  out  God 
and  it  had  pi'actically  foimd  out  nothing,  but  the  nations 
had  sunk  into  basest  idol- worship,  and  utterly  ignored  the 
Great  and  Mighty  God,  then  it  pleased  God  in  his  wisdom 
and  in  his  love  to  save  all  believing  souls  by  what  the 
sages  of  Corinth  assumed  to  regard  as  ''  the  foolishness  of 
preaching." 

Paul  says,  ''foolishness  of  preaching" — taking  the 
words  from  the  lips  of  the  haughty  Greek — as  if  he  would 
say — That  preaching  which  ye  stigmatize  iis  foolishness 
but  in  which  I  glory  as  being  the  consummation  of  divine 
wisdom. 

To  shield  these  words  from  possible  abuse  in  another 
direction,  it  may  fitly  be  suggested  that  in  Paul's  thought 
"  the  foolishness  of  jireaching"  was  by  no  means  the  same 
as  foolish  preaching — the  sort  which  debases  nollest  themes 
with  weak  words  and  vapid  thought — as  if  the  less  of  sense 
and  of  force  their  preaching  had,  the  more  range  and  scope 
there  would  be  for  the  concurrent  power  of  God.  Let  men 
beware  how  they  run  Paul's  logic  into  stupidity  and  plead 
his  authority  for  the  weakest  nonsense  !  If  such  men  could 
have  heard  Paul  himself  preach,  they  would  know  that  his 
sermons  were  never  tame  in  thought  or  weak  in  logic,  or 
barren  of  electric  power.     Far  enough  was  he  from  being 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  I.  185 

an  advocate  of  ''foolish  preaching"  either  in  precept  or 
example. 

22.  For  the  Jews  require  a  sign,  and  the  Greeks  seek 
after  wisdom : 

23.  But  we  preach  Christ  crucified,  unto  the  Jews  a 
stumbling-block,  and  unto  the  Greeks  foolishness  : 

24.  But  unto  them  which  are  called,  both  Jews  and 
Greeks,  Christ  the  power  of  God,  and  the  wisdom  of 
God. 

25.  Because  the  foolishness  of  God  is  wiser  than 
men ;  and  the  weakness  of  God  is  stronger  than  men. 

For  Jews  demand  miracles  ;  Greeks  seek  for  wisdom  ; 
but  we  care  not  to  meet  the  demands  of  either.  Rather, 
obeying  our  high  commission,  we  simply  preach  Christ 
crucified,  though  it  be  to  Jews  a  stumbling-block  and  to 
Gentiles  [so  the  better  text]  foolishness.  For  to  those 
whom  God's  word  and  spirit  have  called,  whether  they  be 
Jews  or  Greeks,  this  Christ  is  both  the  power  and  the  wis- 
dom of  God.  In  him  they  rejoice  to  see  divine  wisdom  ; 
in  him  they  become  sweetly  conscious  of  glorious  power. 
Christ  crucified  satisfies  most  perfectly  every  demand  of 
their  intelligence — every  want  of  their  moral  nature. — For, 
what  proud  men  please  to  call  *•' the  foolishness  of  God" 
is  wiser  far  than  the  most  vaunted  wisdom  of  men,  and 
what  they  may  sneer  at  as  God's  weakness  is  mightier  far 
than  all  the  might  of  mortals. 

26.  For  ye  see  your  calling,  brethren,  how  that  not 
many  wise  men  after  the  flesh,  not  many  mighty,  not 
many  noble,  m'e  called  : 

27.  But  God  hath  chosen  the  foolish  things  of  the 
world  to  confound  the  wise  ;  and  God  hath  chosen  the 
weak  things  of  the  world  to  confound  the  things  which 
are  mighty ; 

28.  And  base  things  of  the  world,  and  things  wdiich 
are  despised,  hath  God  chosen,  yea,  and  things  which 
are  not,  to  bring  to  nought  things  that  are  : 

29.  That  no  flesh  should  glory  in  his  presence. 

The  word  "  for,"  shows  that  the  facts  adduced  here 
are  cited  to  illustrate  and  confirm  the  doctrine  just  before 
laid  down.     Let  them  look  into  their  christian  communitv. 


186  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  I. 

They  would  find  there  but  very  few  from  the  higher  grades 
of  society — but  few  distinguished  for  noble  rank,  or  pre- 
eminent wisdom,  or  commanding  ability.  So  it  has  been 
largely  every  where.  Cultured  Athens  furnished  from  its 
thousands  no  church  at  all,  and  the  men  whom  the  world 
calls  great  are  for  the  most  part  sparsely  represented  in  the 
churches  of  Christ. — Paul  readily  comprehends  the  phil- 
osophy of  this  fact  as  it  lies  in  the  counsels  of  God  ;  viz, 
"  that  no  flesh  should  glory  in  his  presence  ; "  that  the  re- 
lative weakness  of  the  human  instruments  should  illustrate 
the  more  signally  the  paramount  strength  and  glory  of  the 
divine  forces  that  build  up  his  earthly  kingdom. 

In  V.  28,  the  clause — "  things  that  are  not " — does  not 
mean — things  that  have  no  real  existence — mere  nonenti- 
ties ;  but  things  reputed  as  nothing — this  being  the  precise 
sense  given  it  by  the  Greek  negative  used  here. 

30.  But  of  him  are  ye  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  of  God 
is  made  unto  us  wisdom,  and  righteousness,  and  sanctiii- 
cation,  and  redemption : 

31.  That,  according-  as  it  is  written,  lie  that  glo- 
rietli,  let  him  glory  in  the  Lord. 

If  we  ask  [it  is  always  well  to  do  so]  for  the  connec- 
tion of  thought  which  brings  in  this  precious  passage  (v. 
30)  here,  we  must  certainly  find  it  in  the  suggestive  power 
of  the  word  "chosen"  (v.  28).  "  God  hath  chosen"  us, 
the  weak  things  of  the  world,  to  honor  his  grace  and  his 
power  the  more. — Then  follows  this  ;  It  is  of  him  that  we 
are  in  Christ  at  all.  His  "call"  brought  us  in. — Now  to 
this,  let  me  add  (Paul  would  say)  that  through  God's  own 
plan,  Jesus  Christ  is  made  as  to  us,  "  our  wisdom,  our 
righteousness,  our  sanctification,  our  redemption," — every 
thing  which  as  lost  sinners  we  need  to  save  our  souls  from 
sin  and  from  the  curse  of  the  law  we  have  broken. — "  Wis- 
dom" is  doubtless  named  here  because  it  had  been  so 
prominent  throughout  this  chapter.  The  wise  Greeks, 
glorying  in  their  wisdom,  may  be  looking  down  scornfully 
upon  unlearned  christians  as  having  none  of  their  vaunted 
wisdom  ;  but  (Paul  would  suggest),  the  God  of  infinite 
wisdom  makes  Jesus  Christ  the  fountain  of  wisdom  to  his 
people.  The  wisdom  that  is  true,  real,  supremely  precious, 
they  need  not  lack,  cannot  lack,  so  long  as  Jesus  is  made 
to  them  of  God,  their  wisdom. 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  I,  187 

So  is  he  also  the  real  ground  of  their  justification  ;  the 
supreme  fountain  and  source  of  all  sanctifying  power,  and 
of  complete  ultimate  redemption. 

The  scriptural  authority  for  this  (''  according  as  it  is 
written")  brings  up  that  very  striking  passage  (Jer.  9:  23) 
"  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Let  not  the  wise  man  glory  in 
his  wisdom,  neither  let  the  mighty  7nan  glory  in  his  might, 
let  not  the  rich  ma7i  glory  in  his  riches  :  But  let  him  that 
glorieth,  glory  in  this,  that  he  understandeth  and  knoweth 
me,  that  I  am  the  Lord  which  exercise  loving-kindness, 
judgment,  and  righteousness." 


-:jr/i- 


CHAPTER  1 1. 

The  previous  chapter  having  treated  somewhat  fully 
the  negative  side,  showing  how  Paul  did  not  come  to  them 
with  the  gospel,  this  chapter  brings  out  the  positive  side, 
shows  how  he  did  come  ; — viz.,  with  the  Spirit  of  God,  in 
the  demonstration  of  his  power  (v.  1-5)  ;  not  without  real 
wisdom,  yet  not  a  wisdom  of  this  world  but  with  that 
higher  wisdom  which  God  has  revealed  to  those  who  are 
capable  of  receiving  it — a  wisdom  all  unseen  by  the  great 
men  of  earth  (v.  6-9)  ;  the  deep  things  of  God  are  revealed 
by  his  Spirit,  representing  the  Infinite  mind  of  God,  even 
as  the  human  intelligence  is  the  knowing  faculty  in  man 
(v.  10-12).  These  great  truths  he  communicates  to  the 
spiritually-minded  who  can  receive  them  (v.  13-16). 

1.  And  I,  brethren,  when  I  came  to  you,  came  not 
with  excellency  of  speech  or  of  wisdom,  declaring  unto 
you  the  testimony  of  God. 

2.  For  I  determined  not  to  know  anything  among 
you,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified. 

I  made  no  pretensions  to  eloquent  speech  or  to  Grecian 
philosophy ;  I  sought  not  either,  when  I  came  to  you, 
making  known  the  testimony  God  had  given  of  his  Son. 
— Paul's  choice  of  the  word  "  testimony"  to  represent  the 
gospel  and  the  truths  it  enfolds  and  proclaims  is  noticeably 
pertinent ;  for  '"'  testimony  "  is  about  the  last  thing  that 


188  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  II. 

needs  the  embellishment  of  oratory  and  imagination. 
Nothing  but  the  simple  facts  of  the  case  are  germain  to 
testimony.  Paul  had  the  good  sense  to  see  this  and  to  act 
accordingly.  He  would  have  men  see  what  God  had  said 
about  salvation  through  his  Son.  The  more  direct,  sim- 
ple and  clear  his  statement  of  the  facts  could  be  made,  the 
more  effective  would  the  naked  truth  become,  and  the  more 
surely  would  the  Spirit  of  God  accompany  his  words  with 
his  own  demonstrations  of  power. 

Paul's  words  '•'  I  determined  to  know  nothing  among 
you  save  Christ,  and  Him  only  as  crucified,"  have  seemed 
to  many  critics  go  very  strong  as  to  demand  some  softening 
and  modification.  They  suggest  that  we  translate  them — 
not  '*  hnoio,"  but  malce  known.  So  translating  we  do  not 
shut  up  Paul  to  this  single  theme  as  the  only  thing  he 
would  hnoxo  ;  but  only  as  the  theme  he  would  make  known, 
preaching  and  testifying. — But  Paul's  word  is  precisely 
knoiv  ;  and  we  cannot  honestly  make  any  thing  less  of  it, 
or  anything  else.  In  many  other  passages,  Paul  saj's — 
''make  known  ;"  but  he  does  not  use  that  verb  here. — 
The  fair  sense  of  his  word  is  ;  1  determined  not  to  go 
among  you  to  study  Grecian  philosophy  or  Grecian  elo- 
quence, though  I  knew  very  well  how  highly  both  were 
appreciated  in  Corinth.  I  determined  to  shut  down  upon 
whatever  curiosity  I  might  feel  to  learn  your  antiquities, 
your  celebrities,  your  men  or  your  deeds  of  great  renown  ; 
your  works  of  art,  your  splendid  Corinthian  architecture  ; 
— none  of  these  things  should  attract  my  thought ;  not  a 
thing  of  this  sort  should  be  allowed  to  divert  me  from  my 
one  purpose  of  preaching  Christ  and  his  death  for  the  sins 
of  men. 

3.  And  I  was  with  you  in  weakness,  and  in  fear,  and 
in  much  trembling. 

4.  And  my  speech,  and  my  preaching  was  not  witli 
enticing  words  of  man's  wisdom,  bnt  in  demonstration 
of  the  Spirit  and  of  power: 

5.  That  yonr  faith  should  not  stand  in  the  wisdom  of 
men,  but  in  the  power  of  God. 

Moreover,  I  came  not  in  the  consciousness  of  strength, 
nor  in  the  buoyancy  of  health,  but  "  in  weakness,  in  fear 
and  in  much  trembling."    I  felt  the  vast  responsibilities  of 


1  CORINTHIANS,— CHAP.  II.  189 

my  work.  I  had  no  strength  in  myself  for  a  work  so  great 
against  obstacles  so  formidable.  I  would  not  use,  I  could 
not  bring  myself  to  seek — the  enticing  words  of  man's  wis- 
dom. I  sought  only  the  demonstration  of  the  Divine  Spir- 
it's power — to  the  end  that  your  faith  should  not  rest  in 
human  wisdom,  but  only  upon  the  testimony  of  God, 
brought  home  to  the  human  soul  by  his  witnessing  Spirit. 

6.  Howbeit  we  speak  wisdom  among  them  that  are 
perfect:  yet  not  the  wisdom  of  this  world,  nor  of  the 
princes  of  this  world,  that  come  to  nought : 

7.  But  we  speak  the  wisdom  of  God  in  a  mystery,  even 
the  hidden  wisdom,  which  God  orUained  before  the 
world  unto  our  glory ; 

8.  Which  none  of  the  princes  of  this  world  knew  :  for 
had  they  known  it,  they  would  not  have  crucified  the 
Lord  of  glory. 

9.  But  as  it  is  written.  Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear 
heard,  neither  have  entered  into  the  heart  of  man,  the 
things  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love 
him. 

The  ''perfect"  here  are  not  the  sinless, but  the  mature 
in  mind  and  Christian  character — as  opposed  to  babes — 
immature  converts.  For  these  mature  ones  we  have  deep, 
profound  truths  to  teach — things  that  are  real,  true  wis- 
dom— not  indeed  of  this  world  or  of  its  great  men  ; — but 
of  God. 

''  Mystery  "  here  in  the  Pauline  sense — not  of  things 
lying  beyond  the  limits  of  human  thought,  and  known 
therefore  to  God  only ;  but  things  unrevealed  during  the 
early  ages  of  time,  yet  brought  to  light  iu  the  gospel  age  ; 
the  great  things  of  the  gospel,  pertaining  to  the  work  of 
Christ  and  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit.  These  things  were  in 
the  deep  plans  of  God  before  the  world  was  made.  The 
princes  of  this  world — Jewish  and  Koman — knew  them 
not  : — else  they  had  not  crucified  the  Lord  of  Glory. 

The  quotation  in  v.  9  is  from  Isa.  G4:  4 — often  taken  to 
refer  to  the  yet  unseen  things  of  heaven  ;  but  strictly  hav- 
ing no  reference  to  the  future  world  whatever,  and  only  to 
the  revelations  of  the  gospel  to  be  made  in  the  then  future 
ages  of  time.  "  The  things  God  had  prepared  for  those  that 
love  him"  lav  in  the  incarnation,  sufferings  and  work  of 
9 


190  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  II. 

Christ.  These  were  the  things  which  the  rulers  of  Judea 
who  murdered  Jesus  did  not  know,  but  which  God  has  re- 
vealed to  his  people  through  the  Spirit, 

10.  But  God  hath  revealed  tliem  unto  ns  by  his 
Spirit ;  for  the  Spirit  searcheth  all  things,  yea,  the  deep 
things  of  God. 

11.  For  what  man  knoweth  the  things  of  a  man,  save 
the  spirit  of  man  v^^hich  is  in  him  ?  even  so  the  things 
of  God  knoweth  no  man,  but  the  Spirit  of  God. 

12.  Kow  we  have  received,  not  the  spirit  of  the  world, 
but  the  Spirit  which  is  of  God ;  that  we  might  know  the 
things  that  are  freely  given  to  us  of  God. 

The  Spirit  is  here  thought  of  as  representing  the  intel- 
ligence, the  mind  of  God,  and  therefore  as  surely  knowing 
and  capable  of  teaching  all  the  deep  things  of  God.  For 
illustration,  consider  that  it  is  the  spirit  of  man,  his  intel- 
lectual, spiritual  nature  which  constitutes  his  faculty  of 
knowing — which  receives  and  holds  his  knowledge.  This 
divine  Sipirit  within  us  works  in  and  upon  our  intelligence; 
becomes  our  teacher  to  ''  lead  us  into  all  truth."'  By  his 
presence  and  agency,  therefore,  we  come  to  know  the  things 
that  are  graciously  given  us  of  God —  i.  e.  the  gospel  of  our 
salvation. 

13.  "Which  things  also  we  speak,  not  in  the  words 
which  man's  wisdom  teacheth,  but  which  the  Holy  Ghost 
teacheth ;  comparing  spiritual  things  with  spiritual. 

14.  But  the  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of 
the  Spirit  of  God :  for  they  are  foolishness  unto  him : 
neither  can  he  know  them^  because  they  are  spiritually 
discerned. 

The  last  clause  in  v.  13,  is  difficult — in  our  Auth.,  ver- 
sion— "comparing  spiritual  things  with  spiritual.  But 
this  translation  admits  of  improvement.  ''  With  spiritual" 
— is  rather — "  to  those  who  are  spiritual  " — put  in  contrast 
with  the  "natural  man"  in  v.  14.  Paul  has  no  word  for 
"  with,"  and  the  dative  case  which  he  does  use  naturally 
means  to  the  spiritually  minded. — In  v.  13  his  point  is  that 
in  revealing  those  deep  things,  he  employs,  not  the  words 
of  human  wisdom,  but  words  taught  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  in  addressing  men,  discriminating  between  those  who 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  II.  191 

have  the  Spirit  and  those  who  have  him  not,  and  imparting 
these  spiritual  things  only  to  the  spiritually  minded — men 
taught  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  The  sense  I  take  to  be — 
With  discrimination  imparting  spiritual  truth  to  spiritual 
minds.  The  participle  [sunkrinontes]  suggests  this  dis- 
crimination between  the  two  classes  as  an  act  of  judgment, 
its  normal  sense  being  to  judge  between  for  the  purpose  of 
making  the  necessary  discrimination.  Critics  have  con- 
strued this  clause  variously,  and  especially  this  participle. 
The  other  cases  of  its  usage  by  Paul  (2  Cor  10  :  12)  give  but 
little  help.  Meyer  puts  it — '•'  connecting  spiritual  things 
with  spiritual — /.  e.  not  mingling  heterogeneous  things, 
but  linking  the  spiritual  lessons  of  the  Spirit  with  spiritual 
language  ; "  thus  assuming  that  this  clause  merely  expands 
the  sentiment  of  the  clause  immediately  preceding. — The 
precise  sense  which  I  have  given  it  follows  the  general  drift 
of  the  whole  context  and  the  special  demands  of  the  anti- 
thesis in  the  next  words — ''But  the  natural  man"  etc. 

Furthermore,  the  translation  of  the  Auth.  version  as- 
sumes that  this  clause  states  a  laiu  or  method  of  interpre- 
tation. But  to  this  there  are  very  grave  objections.  In- 
terpretation is  entirely  aside  from  the  drift  and  scope  of  the 
passage.  Paul  is  speaking,  not  of  interpreting  but  of  im- 
parting. He  would  show — not  how  he  learns  what  God's 
word  means,  but  what  class  of  men  can  receive  it.  He  has 
carefully  said  (v.  6)  that  it  was  only  to  men  of  mature 
Christian  development  that  he  could  speak  this  deep  wis- 
dom of  God  ;  and  in  v,  14,  which  stands  directly  over 
against  our  clause,  he  tells  us  that  the  natural  man  does 
not  receive  the  things  taught  of  the  Spirit  because  they 
seem  foolishness  to  him,  and  he  cannot  know  them  because 
they  can  be  discerned  only  through  the  teachings  of  tlie 
Spirit — of  which  he  has  no  experience. 

15.  But  he  that  is  spiritual  judge tli  all  things,  yet  he 
InmseK  is  judged  of  no  man. 

16.  For  who  hath  known  the  mind  of  the  Lord,  that 
he  may  instruct  him  ?     But  we  have  the  mind  of  Christ. 

The  spiritual  {i.  e.  the  man  taught  by  the  Spirit),  judges 
in  the  sense  of  appreciating,  understanding,  all  spiritual 
things,  yet  is  never  really  estimated  and  understood  by 
men  unenlightened  of  the  Spirit. — those  who  judge  of 
things  only  as  men  do  in  their  natural  state  of  sin. — How 


192  1  CORINTHIANS.— GHAP.  II. 

can  such  men  know  the  mind  of  the  Lord  that  they  should 
teach  liim  ?  How  can  they  estimate  worthily  the  great 
truths  pertaining  to  God  and  his  gospel  ?  Consequently 
they  are  utterly  incompetent  to  estimate  the  principles  and 
the  life  of  God's  children.  We  Avho  have  the  mind  of 
Christ  apprehend  these  things  most  readily. 

All  tliis  explains  why  the  great  and  wise  men  of  Corinth 
were  so  dark-minded  as  to  the  things  of  the  gospel.  All 
their  vaunted  wisdom  seemed  to  have  no  capacity  for  ap- 
prehending the  gospel  of  Christ. 


-tO~.- 


CHAPTEE  III. 

That  they  were  not  spiritual  but  carnal  of  mind — to 
be  fed  therefore  as  babes,  Paul  proves  from  their  strifes 
and  sectarian  spirit  (v. '1-4):  these  apostolic  laborers  were 
not  principals  but  only  subordinates — mere  servants  of  the 
Lord  and  wholly  dependent  on  the  Lord  for  all  their  real 
success  (v.  5-8)  ; — these,  the  laborers  ;  the  work  done  is 
wholly  God's  (v.  9).  Paul  laid  the  foundation  by  preach- 
ing Christ ;  the  others  followed  him,  making  additions  to 
the  building,  of  greater  or  less  value  (v.  10-15).  All  real 
Christians  are  truly  God's  temple,  in  which  temple  the 
Spirit  of  God  dwells,  and  no  man  should  defile  it  (v.  1G,17)  ; 
hence  professed  Christians  should  beware  of  being  proud 
of  their  worldly  wisdom  (v.  18-20)  and  of  glorying  in  men, 
for  the  best  of  men  are  only  Christ's  servants,  to  work  for 
him,  whom  they  should  serve  as  belonging  to  him  only,  as 
he  also,  to  God  (v.  21-23). 

1.  And  I,  brethren,  could  not  speak  unto  yoti  as  unto 
spiritual,  but  as  unto  carnal,  even  as  unto  babes  in  Christ. 

2.  I  have  fed  you  with  milk,  and  not  with  meat  ; 
for  hitherto  ye  were  not  able  to  hear  it,  neither  yet  now 
are  ye  able. 

3.  For  ye  are  yet  carnal :  for  whereas  there  is  among 
you  envying,  and  strife,  and  divisions,  are  yo  not  carnal, 
and  walk  as  men  ? 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  III.  193 

4.  For  while  one  saith,  I  am  of  Paul ;  and  another, 
I  am  of  Apollos ;  are  ye  not  carnal  ? 

Gladly  would  I  have  spoken  to  you  as  to  spiritual  men 
and  given  you  rich  spiritual  truth  accordingly  ;  but  I  could 
not  :  your  carnality  of  mind  made  that  impossible.  The 
best  I  could  do  because  the  best  ye  could  bear  was  to  feed 
you  with  milk  adapted  to  babes.  Your  carnal  spirit,  your 
infantile  state  of  development,  reveals  itself  in  your  clan- 
nish sectarianism. — Plainly  Paul  meant  to  take  down  their 
proud  self-conceit,  and  to  suggest  that  their  exalted  notions 
of  their  own  wisdom  were  the  proof  of  a  very  low  stage  of 
spiritual  attainment.  Their  clannish  spirit  showed  that 
they  over-estimated  men  and  under-estimated  Christ — this 
mis-estimation  being  conclusive  evidence  of  a  mind  steeped 
in  things  of  earth  and  not  imbued  with  the  things  of 
heaven.  Men  who  can  so  easily  and  naturally  over-ride 
the  law  of  love  and  revel  in  the  antagonisms  of  strife  and 
envy  are  most  thoroughly  carnal,  walking  as  men  do,  and 
not  as  Christians. 

Remarkably  the  oldest  manuscripts  give  the  last  word 
of  V.  4 — not  "carnal"  but  "men."  When  one  says — '•'! 
of  Paul,"  and  another — "  I  of  Apollos  ;  "  Are  ye  not 
7tien  ?  "  This  is  manlike  ;  this  is  being  human,  in  the  very 
low  sense.  The  choice  of  this  word  follows  the  last  clause 
of  V.  3,  "  And  walk  as  men." 

5.  "Who  then  is  Paul,  and  who  is  Apollos,  but  min- 
isters by  whom  ye  believed,  even  as  the  Lord  gave  to 
every  man? 

6.  I  have  planted,  Apollos  watered ;  but  God  gave 
the  increase. 

Y.  So  then  neither  is  he  that  planteth  any  thing, 
neither  he  that  watereth  ;  but  God  that  giveth  the  in- 
crease. 

8.  ISTow  he  that  planteth  and  he  that  watereth  are 
one  :  and  every  man  shall  receive  his  own  reward  accord- 
ing to  his  own  labour. 

Paul's  argument  against  following  sectarian  leaders  and 
building  up  sects  on  the  names  of  great  men,  is  thoroughly 
fundamental ;  viz.  this  : — that  these  great  men  are  not  so 
very  great  after  all.     They  are  not  principals  but  only  sub- 


19i  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  III. 

ordinates.  They  perform  a  small  ministerial  service  ;  but 
are  at  best  only  very  humble  servants.  They  do  a  small 
work  in  planting  and  watering ;  but  the  real  growth,  the 
fruitage,  is  all  of  God.  Their  work  would  be  wholly  a 
blank,  a  dead  failure,  if  God's  agency  were  to  be  left  out. 
Practically,  therefore,  the  planter  is  nothing — the  waterer 
nothing  :  God  who  gives  the  increase  is  everything.  Why 
then  should  ye  glorify  men  ? 

"  He  that  planteth  and  he  that  watereth  are  one  " — in 
the  sense  of  being  in  one  and  the  same  class — one  party  as 
toward  God  who  is  the  other  party.  The  utmost  they  can 
do  is  a  small,  honest  service  which  God  rewards  for  its 
sincerity  more  than  for  the  essential  importance  of  what 
they  do. — It  is,  therefore,  very  futile  and  foolish  to  dis- 
criminate in  favor  of  one  and  against  another  of  these 
entirely  subordinate  instruments,  leaving  the  momentous 
agency  of  God  in  all  Christian  work  so  strangely  out  of 
account. — Here  again  in  v.  5  the  oldest  manuscripts  change 
the  punctuation,  yet  leave  the  sense  substantially  the  same 
— thus:  "Who  is  Paul  and  who  is  Apollos  ?  Ministers 
by  whom  ye  believed,"  [that  is  all]. 

9.  For  v^c,  are  laborers  together  with  God :  ye  are 
God's  husbandry,  ye  are  God's  building. 

That  christian  ministers  do  labor  jointly  with  God— is 
doubtless  a  truth,  yet  is  not  the  truth  which  Paul  put  into 
this  passage.  The  natural  bearing  of  this  truth  is  to  ele- 
vate man  by  calling  attention  to  his  association  with  God 
in  spiritual  work.  This  would  be  foreign  from  Paul's  pur- 
pose in  this  connection — which  was  rather  to  indicate  the 
very  subordinate  position  of  men.  This  construction  is 
therefore  rather  adverse  to  Paul's  drift  of  thought  here. — 
In  what  Paul  actually  said,  the  idea  of  association — "  to- 
gether with" — belongs  exclusively  to  the  men — to  the 
••'  we"  who  labor  ;  while  in  Paul's  Greek  words,  the  geni- 
tive— God's  fellow-laborers — indicates  their  common  rela- 
tion of  service  to  him.  They  are  precisely  Ms  workmen. 
As  to  their  personal  relations  to  each  other  they  are  all  on 
the  same  footing — joint  fellow- workers.  It  is  not  easy,  to 
give  the  Greek  a  perfect  translation  ;  but  this  preserves 
the  essential  features  :  "  We  are  God's  brother-laborers." — 
We  are  brethren,  bound  to  luorJc  together  for  the  common 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  HI.  195 

object ;  and  we  are  all  God's  workmen,  working  for  him 
only  and  not  for  ourselves. 

Ye  are  God's  farm,  or  garden  ; — not  '■  husbandry  "  in 
the  modern  sense,  for  this  word  suggests  the  art  or  science 
of  farming.  Paul  means  only  that  '-'ye" — the  men  upon 
whom  our  labor  is  expended — are  the  garden  of  the  Lord, 
in  and  vipon  which  we  work  ;  or  to  change  the  figure — the 
building  of  God,  his  temple,  which  we  are  helping  to  build. 

10.  According  to  the  grace  of  God  which  is  given 
nnto  me,  as  a  wise  master-builder,  I  have  laid  the  fomi- 
dation,  and  another  bnildeth  thereon.  But  let  every 
man  take  heed  how  he  buildetli  thereupon. 

11.  For  other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that  is 
laid,  which,  is  Jesus  Christ. 

12.  ISTow  if  any  man  build  upon  this  foundation  gold, 
silver,  precious  stones,  wood,  hay,  stubble ; 

13.  Every  man's  work  shall  be  made  manifest :  for 
the  day  shall  declare  it,  because  it  shall  be  revealed  by 
fire ;  and  the  fire  shall  try  every  man's  work  of  what  sort 
it  is. 

11.  If  any  man's  work  abide  which  he  hath  built 
thereupon  he  shall  receive  a  reward. 

15.  If  any  man's  work  shall  be  burned,  he  shall  suf- 
fer loss :  but  he  himself  shall  be  saved,  yet  so  as  by  fire, 

Exegetically,  the  great  question  of  this  passage  is 
whether  the  things  built  upon  this  foundation  [Christ]  (v. 
12-15),  are  to  be  thought  of  as  the  doctrines  preached  ;  or 
as  the  converts  made  and  brought  into  the  church.  Doubt- 
less the  preaching  of  truth  works  toward  making  the  con- 
verts ;  but  we  have  to  ask — Which  leads  the  thought  here  ; 
the  quality  of  the  things  preached  ;  or  the  quality  of  the 
converts  made  ? 

In  the  first  place,  the  foundation  is  certainly  not  Christ 
as  a  man,  a  convert,  a  church-member  ;  but  Christ  as  em- 
bodying all  gospel  truth.  Doubtless  there  is  a  very  impor- 
tant sense  in  which  Christ  persojially  is  the  foundation 
rock  upon  which  the  church,  God's  temple  is  built,  but 
this  is  not  the  sense  in  which  Paul  laid  this  foundation. 
He  laid  the  foundation  only  in  the  sense  of  preaching 
Christ  and  him  crucified  ;  i.  e.  we  start  with  the  idea  of 
doctrines,  not  coiiverts. 


196  1  COKINTHIANS.— CHAP.  III. 

Next,  other  men  coming  after  him  are  supposed  to 
build  on  this  one  foundation — Christ  and  his  cross.  If 
they  build  by  placing  on  this  foundation  yet  more  of  solid, 
pure  gospel  truth,  it  will  be  gold  and  silver  in  God's  tem- 
ple ;  but  if  they  pile  on  wood,  hay,  stubble, — (as  they  may), 
— the  fire  will  try  it. 

Thus  far  the  course  of  thought  is  manifestly  of  truth 
primarily  rather  than  of  converts.  But  the  proving  of  his 
work  by  the  fire,  and  especially  the  allusion  to  "the  day" 
as  that  which  would  expose  and  "  declare  " — i.  e.  reveal 
the  quality  of  his  work,  is  very  naturally  suggestive  of  con- 
verts. We  harmonize  the  whole  description  if  we  assume 
that  in  Paul's  thought,  poor  preaching,  bad  doctrine, 
brings  in  poor  converts  whom  '•'the  great  day"  will  show 
to  be  only  "wood,  hay  and  stubble,"  for  the  fires  of  the 
judgment.  Thus  his  mind  might  insensibly  glide  from  the 
first  conception — truth  preached — to  the  final  thought — 
the  fruits  of  such  preaching  proved  to  be  only  the  ruin  of 
souls.  According  to  Scripture  usage  and  to  common  sense 
also,  it  is  not  precisely  doctrines  but  human  souls  that  are 
tried  with  fire  in  the  last  awful  day.  If  this  laborer  has 
been  honest  yet  misguided  and  ignorant,  his  converts  per- 
ish, though  himself  may  be  saved  as  one  plucked  out  from 
a  tremendous  conflagration. 

Thus  the  whole  passage  suggests  forcibly  that  men  who 
preach  something  else  than  Christ  will  make  converts  who 
are  anything  else  rather  than  christians.  Those  who  make 
little  of  Christ  in  their  preaching  and  teaching  will  fill  the 
church  with  men  who  have  little  of  Christ  in  their  souls. 
Wood  and  stubble  in  place  of  gospel  truth  will  surely  rep- 
resent itself  by  wood  and  stubble  in  place  of  the  precious 
stones,  fit  for  the  walls  of  God's  spiritual  temple.  Let  men 
take  care  how  they  build  cliristian  churches  !  And  how 
they  say  to  men — This  is  the  way  to  heaven — and  lo  !  it  is 
the  way  to  hell  ! 

16.  Know  ye  not  that  ye  are  the  temple  of  God,  and 
that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwelleth  in  you  ? 

lY.  If  any  man  defile  the  temple  of  God,  him  sliall 
God  destroy ;  for  the  temple  of  God  is  holy,  which  temple 
ye  are. 

Here  the  conception  of  Christians  as  God's  temple  fol 
lows  the  previous  passage  — "ye  are  God's  building  "(v.  9) 


1  CORINTHIANS.-CHAP.  III.  19 7 

Yet  further  back  lay  the  Jewish  temple,  glorified  by  the 
sacred  Shechiuah — the  visibly  manifested  presence  of  God, 
evermoi'e  resting  on  the  mercy-seat  beneath  the  Cherubim. 
Pi'ophecy  translated  this  symbol  into  the  language  of  com- 
mon thought  in  the  promise — "I  will  dwell  in  them  and 
walk  in  them;" — which  the  yet  plainer  phrase  of  the 
Christian  age  expressed  in  the  promised  gift  of  the  Spirit 
as  a  "  Comforter,"  to  abide  with  you  forever  ;  for  He  dwel- 
Icth  with  you  and  shall  be  in  you  "  (John  14  :  16,  17). 

This  great  gospel  truth  Paul  assumes  that  every  Chris- 
tian ought  surely  to  know. — '•'  Know  ye  not  that  ye  are  the 
temple  of  G-od  and  that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwells  within 
you  ?" — Obviously  a  human  temple  in  which  God  deigns 
to  dwell  should  be  kept  pure  and  never  suffer  the  least  de- 
filement. Hence  tlie  moral  force  of  Paul's  inference  ; — 
•'•'  If  any  man  defile  the  temple  of  God,  God  shall  defile 
him  " — this  being  what  Paul  said — the  precise  form  in 
which  he  puts  this  thouglit.  This  play  upon  the  twofold 
sense  of  the  word  "  defile  "  arrests  and  fixes  attention,  and 
suggests  how  reasonable  it  is  that  men  having  so  little  re- 
spect for  God  as  to  foul  his  temple  should  meet  their  de- 
served doom  in  shame  and  everlasting  contempt.  Eeally 
no  persuasive  to  moral  purity,  and  no  dissuasive  against  sin 
can  be  more  impressive,  more  solemn,  than  this — that  our 
bodies  are  temples  of  God  in  which  he  dwells  by  his  Spirit.  A 
temple  for  God  should  tolerate  no  pollution,  not  even  a  stain. 
The  human  soul  in  which  he  dwells  should  admit  nothing 
foul — that  is  to  say,  nothing  alien  from  purity  and  love", 
nothing  selfish,  nothing  proud,  nothing  sensual  and  earthly; 
nothing  that  would  not  be  at  home  in  the  very  atmosphere 
of  heaven.  Surely  if  we  carried  about  with  us  the  sense  of 
this  truth— God's  Spirit  deigns  to  dwell  in  my  soul  as  his 
temple — this  of  itself  would  be  instead  of  all  other  admoni- 
tions against  sin  and  incentives  toward  a  pure  heart  and 
an  unblemished  life. 


18.  Let  no  men  deceive  himself.  If  any  man  among 
you  seemeth  to  be  wise  in  this  world,  let  him  become  a 
fool,  that  he  may  be  wise. 

19.  For  the  wisdom  of  this  world  is  foolishness  with 
God  :  for  it  is  written.  He  taketh  the  wise  in  their  own 
craftiness. 


198  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  III. 

20.  And  again,  The  Lord  knowetli  the  thoughts  of 
the  wise,  that  they  are  vain. 

21.  Therefore  let  no  man  glory  in  men  :  for  all  things 
are  yours; 

22.  Whether  Paul,  or  Apollos,  or  Cephas,  or  the 
world,  or  life,  or  death,  or  things  present,  or  things  to 
come ;  all  are  yours ; 

23.  And  ye  are  Christ's ;  and  Christ  is  God's. 

The  moral  force  of  this  momentous  consideration,  Paul 
would  bring  to  bear  upon  the  case  then  present — -the  vanity 
and  pride  which  appeared  in  the  church  at  Corinth — men 
vain  of  their  Grecian  philosophy,  conceited  with  the  notion 
of  being  wiser  than  Paul  ;  wiser  than  the  gospel  in  its  sim- 
plicity.— Let  them  have  the  sense  to  eschew  such  conceit, 
even  to  the  extent  of  becoming  fools  in  their  own  esteem 
so  that  they  may  become  truly  wise  under  God's  teaching. 

The  first  quotation  is  from  Job  5  :  13  ;  the  second, 
from  Ps.  94  :  11. 

The  practical  application  (very  sensibly  drawn),  is — 
Let  no  man  glory  in  mm — not  even  in  the  great  and  good 
men  who  have  brought  to  you  the  gospel.  The  best  of 
them  are  only  God's  weak  instruments  whom  he  graciously 
uses  for  your  service.  By  the  gracious  gift  of  God,  they 
are  all  yours. — Let  your  heart  receive  them  as  God's  ser- 
vants and  as  his  gift ;  and  not  only  those  men,  but  all  the 
powers  and  agencies  of  earth  and.  heaven  ;  the  world,  life, 
death  ;  things  present ;  things  to  come  " — all  are  made  to 
subserve  the  spiritual  purity  and  welfare  of  the  living 
church,  and  should  be  estimated  in  this  light. 

As  all  these  things  are  for  the  church,  so  is  the  church 
for  Christ,  and  Christ,  for  God.  Here  all  things  culmin- 
ate, reaching  their  supreme  consummation  in  the  infinite 
glory  of  God.  As  they  emanate  from  his  boundless  love 
alone,  so  let  them  return  to  exalt  his  well  deserved  and 
everlasting  glory  ! 


CIIAPTEP  IV. 

In  this  chapter  we  have  the  painful  spectacle  of  a  man 
of  noble  soul,  harassed  by  the  jealousy,  detraction  and  an- 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  IV.  199 

tagonism  of  narrow  and  mean  souls — for  all  Avliich  lie 
would  care  little  were  it  not  that  his  reputation  is  a  price- 
less treasure  to  the  church,  and  that  all  there  is  of  himself 
he  has  given  to  Christ,  and  must  therefore  make  the  most 
of  himself  for  the  gospel's  sake. 

In  general  theme,  this  chapter  belongs  with  the  three 
that  precede  it — all  suggested  by  the  sectarian  strifes  at 
Corinth  over  the  great  names  of  their  apostles.  A  party 
there,  probably  of  Jewish  antecedents,  set  themselves  to 
disparage  Paul  in  comparison  with  Apollos  and  Peter.  It 
is  of  small  consequence  to  us  to  know  what  points  they 
raised  against  him.  Men  who  will  to  do  it  can  always 
trump  up  something — all  the  same,  though  there  be  not 
the  least  occasion  in  the  facts  of  the  case. 

In  this  chapter,  Paul  says  to  them — Think  of  us  as 
stewards  of  God  Avhosc  first  concern  is  fidelity  to  their  mas- 
ter (v.  1,2) ;  that  he  had  not  the  least  reason  to  care  for 
the  judgment  which  they  or  any  man  might  pass  upon 
him — the  Lord's  judgment  and  this  only,  being  of  any  im- 
portance (v.  3-5)  ;  which  he  would  apply  in  the  2:)reseut 
case  (v.  6,7).  Half  ironically,  he  represents  his  opponents 
as  supremely  well  off,  and  puts  in  contrast  his  own  hard- 
ships, privations  and  self-sacrifices  (v.  8-13);  then,  in  a  strain 
of  tenderness  and  warning,  declares  his  love  as  their  father 
in  the  gospel  (v.  I-I-IG).  Why  he  sends  to  them  Timothy 
(v.  17).  Some  were  proudly  defiant,  whose  case  calls  for 
sternness  (v.  18-21). 

1.  Let  a  man  so  account  of  us,  as  of  the  ministers  of 
Christ,  and  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  Clod. 

2.  Moreover  it  is  required  in  stew^ards,  that  a  man  be 
found  faithful. 

Let  our  opponents  there  in  Corinth  thinks  of  us  as 
Christ's  servants,  bearing  the  responsibilities  of  stewards 
in  the  gospel  household,  having  in  charge  "  the  mysteries  of 
God" — those  gospel  truths  through  long  ages  unknown, 
but  now  revealed  by  our  preaching. 

The  first  word  of  v.  2,  according  to  the  oldest  textual 
authorities,  should  be. — Herein — in  this  sphere  of  the  stew- 
ard— the  very  first  quality  sought  is  fidelity — fidelity  of 
course  to  his  employer.  What  others  might  think  or  say 
of  them  was  a  very  insignificant  matter,  if  they  were  only 
true  to  their  Master. 


200  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  IV. 

3.  But  with  me  it  is  a  very  small  thing  that  I  should 
be  judged  of  you,  or  of  man's  judgment :  yea,  I  judge 
not  mine  own  self. 

4.  For  I  know  nothing  by  myself ;  yet  am  I  not  here- 
by justified :  but  he  that  judgeth  me  is  the  Lord. 

5.  Therefore  judge  nothing  before  the  time,  until  the 
Lord  come,  who  both  will  bring  to  light  the  hidden  things 
of  darkness,  and  will  make  manifest  the  counsels  of  the 
hearts :  and  then  shall  every  man  have  praise  of  God. 

The  words  of  Paul  which  represents  the  phrase — man's 
judgment" — are  precisely — under  meal's  day — "day" 
being  used  in  Koman  law-phrase  in  reference  to  an  indict- 
ment to  appear  in  court  for  trial.  To  "fi.^  a  day"  for  a 
man  was  to  serve  a  writ  upon  him — an  indictment  to  ap- 
pear. 

The  more  important  point  in  this  passage  is  what  Paul 
says  of  judging  himself. 

There  is  no  question  that  he  sought  to  live  in  all  good 
conscience  toward  God,  f alfilUng  every  demand  of  an  en- 
lightened conscience,  and  seeking  light  perpetually  from  his 
Divine  Teacher  ;  but  we  must  observe  that  he  does  not  re- 
gard the  decisions  of  his  own  conscience  as  surely  infallible. 
In  his  view  nothing  can  infallibly  certify  to  him  his  final 
approval  before  the  Lord  save  the  Lord's  own  decision. 
Paul  may  be  supposed  to  remember  that  in  his  Pharisaic 
life  he  thought  he  was  very  conscientious,  yet  found  to  his 
future  shame  and  grief  that  he  was  under  a  very  grave  mis- 
take, involving  great  sin. — The  definite  point  he  makes 
here  is  that  his  own  judgment  as  to  himself  cannot  be  re- 
lied on  to  decide  his  final  acceptance  before  God,  for  noth- 
ing can  decide  this  but  the  judgment  of  Christ  himself. 

This  doctrine  has  vital  bearings  on  the  point  of  the 
absolute  infallibility  of  conscience  ;  and  consequently  on 
the  practical  question  Avhether  walking  in  all  good  consci- 
ence is  really  equivalent  to  being  sinless.  It  seems  plain 
that  Paul  would  answer  both  these  questions  in  the  nega- 
tive. 

No  extended  discussion  of  this  point  would  be  in  place 
here.  It  must  suffice  to  suggest  that  the  imperfections 
pertaining  to  the  conscience  he  in  the  domain  of  the  intel- 
ligence, and  especially  in  the  mind's  judgment  of  right 
as  affected  by  cherished  sin.     Imperfect  notions  of  what  is 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  IV.  201 

right  may  involve  sin — which  sin  does  not  become  righte- 
ousness because  the  conscience  approves  and  the  will  acts 
accordingly. 

6.  And  these  things  brethren,  I  have  in  a  figure 
transferred  to  myself  and  to  Apollos  for  your  sakes ;  that 
ye  might  learn  in  us  not  to  think  of  men  above  that  which 
is  written,  that  no  one  of  you  be  puffed  up  for  one  against 
another. 

7.  For  who  maketli  thee  to  differ /"/"orn  anoiher%  and 
what  hast  thou  that  thou  didst  not  receive  ?  Now  if  thou 
didst  receive  it^  why  dost  thou  glory,  as  if  thou  hadst 
not  received  it  % 

In  the  middle  clause  of  v.  G,  the  older  manuscripts  omit 
the  word  to  "  think,"  and  have  no  such  limitation  as  our  ver- 
sion puts  in  the  words  '■^  of  men'''' — leaving  his  sense  thus  : 
— "  that  in  us  ye  may  learn  this — not  to  be  [or  to  go]  above 
what  is  written  :  and  that  ye  be  not  puffed  up  each  one  in 
behalf  of  some  one  against  another. 

To  glory  boastfully,  proud  over  gifts  which  are  from 
God,  must  be  most  offensive  to  him,  not  to  say  insulting 
and  abusive  ;  for  it  practically  denies  God  the  Giver,  and 
assumes  those  things  to  be  one's  own  and  not  God's — of  and 
from  themselves  and  not  from  God. 

8.  Now  ye  are  full,  now  ye  are  rich,  ye  have  reigned 
as  kings  without  us :  and  I  would  to  God  ye  did  reign, 
that  we  also  might  reign  with  you. 

9.  For  I  think  that  God  hath  set  forth  us  the  apos- 
tles last,  as  it  were  appointed  to  death :  for  we  are  made 
a  spectacle  unto  the  world,  and  to  angels,  and  to  men. 

This  is  irony — morally  admissible  when  a  writer  sup- 
poses his  reader  too  thick  headed  and  conceited  to  see  and  to 
feel  his  meaning  if  put  in  sober  earnest.  It  is  not  specially 
complimentary  to  the  good  sense  of  those  proud  men  of 
Corinth. — To  "reign  as  kings"  is  a  proverbial  expression 
— as  we  might  say — "Happy  as  a  king."  They  thought 
themselves  to  be  at  the  top  of  society,  on  the  highest  wave 
of  popular  esteem.  Paul  wishes  most  heartily  that  they 
were  as  good  and  worthy  as  they  supposed  themselves  to  be, 
for  then  himself  and  his  fellow-laborers  might  rejoice  in 
their  high  position. 


202  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  IV. 

As  for  us,  apostles,  we  are  not  swimming  on  the  top 
wave  of  popular  favor,  puffed,  moreover,  with  self-conceit. 
We  are  rather  like  the  men  set  apart  in  the  gladiator's 
shows  to  come  last — death-doomed — to  crown  the  savage 
scene  by  our  death-agonies — a  spectacle  to  the  world,  to 
angels  and  to  men. 

Incidentally,  Paul  shows  that  in  his  view  the  scenes  of 
earth  lie  in  full  view  of  the  angels  of  heaven. 

10.  We  are  fools  for  Christ's  sake,  but  ye  are  wise  in 
Christ ;  we  are  weak,  but  ye  are  strong  ;  ye  are  honora- 
ble, but  we  are  despised. 

11.  Even  nnto  this  present  hour  we  both  hunger, 
and  thirst,  and  are  naked,  and  are  buffeted,  and  have  no 
certain  dwelling  place ; 

12.  And  labour,  working  with  our  own  hands :  being 
reviled,  we  bless ;  being  persecuted,  we  suffer  it : 

13.  Being  defamed,  we  entreat :  we  are  made  as  the 
filth  of  the  world,  and  are  the  offscouring  of  all  things 
unto  this  day. 

'•'  "We  are  fools  for  Christ's  sake  " — so  reputed  among 
tl\e  disaffected  brethren  at  Corinth  : — while  ye  are  very 
wise  in  Christ  in  your  own  esteem — the  same  vein  of  irony 
running  through  this  passage. 

The  words  in  v.  13 — •'  tilth  and  offscouring  " — are  in- 
tensely strong.  We  are  the  refuse  of  society  ;  the  sweep- 
ings of  the  streets  ;  the  contents  of  the  sewers — those  whom 
men  discard  and  rule  out  of  decent  society. — Was  not  this 
picture  overdrawn  ?  If  not,  the  case  gives  us  a  new  ap- 
preciation of  the  trials  and  humiliations  to  which  Paul 
was  subjected  in  this  proud,  dissolute  city. 

14.  I  write  not  these  things  to  shame  you,  but  as 
my  beloved  sons  I  warn  you. 

15.  For  though  ye  have  ten  thousand  instructors  in 
Christ,  yet  have  ye  not  many  fathers :  for  in  Christ 
Jesus  I  have  begotten  you  through  the  gospel. 

16.  "Wherefore  I  beseech  you,  be  ye  followers  of  me. 

As  if  aware  that  his  real  intent  in  these  strong  words 
might  be  misunderstood  he  subjoins  : — "  I  say  not  these 
things  to  put  you   to   shame  [they   ouylit   to   have   been 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  IV.  203 

ashamed  !  ]  — but  for  the  love  I  bear  you  as  my  children, 
I  warn  you.  Ye  may  have  myriads  of  teachers  in  Christ : 
but  ye  have  few  real  fathers.  I  have  been  to  you  a  very 
father  in  Christ,  and  ye  are  my  children  in  the  gospel. 

How  strangely  had  they  responded  to  such  love  ! — and 
again  :  how  forbearing  and  loving  is  the  paternal  heart  of 
the  great  Apostle,  despite  of  such  abuse  ! 

17.  For  tliis  cause  have  I  sent  unto  you  Timotlieus, 
who  is  my  beloved  son,  and  faithful  in  the  Lord,  who 
shall  bring  you  into  remembrance  of  my  ways  which  be 
in  Christ,  as  I  teach  every  where  in  every  church. 

Affairs  at  Corinth  had  become  so  bad  that  Paul  sent 
his  best  man,  Timothy,  especially  to  bring  to  their  remem- 
brance the  doctrines  Paul  preached  and  his  ways  of  Chris- 
tian living,  as  taught  in  all  the  churches. 

18.  !N"ow  some  are  j)uffed  uj),  as  though  I  would  not 
come  to  you. 

19.  But  I  will  come  to  you  shortly,  if  the  Lord  will, 
and  will  know,  not  the  speech  of  them  which  are  puffed 
up,  but  the  power. 

20.  For  the  kingdom  of  God  is  not  in  word,  but  in 
power. 

21.  What  will  ye  ?  sliall  I  come  unto  you  with  a  rod, 
or  in  love,  and  in  the  spirit  of  meekness  'i 

Some  of  those  malcontents  were  really  defiant,  to  such 
an  extent  that  they  scoffed  at  what  Paul  might  say  by  let- 
ter, and  feared  only  the  infliction  of  miraculous  judgments 
which,  if  present  he  might  visit  upon  them.  They  carried 
a  higli  hand,  under  the  feeling  that  Paul  would  not  come 
in  person  ;  but  Paul  warned  them  that  he  would.  They 
might  learn  to  their  cost  that  the  gospel  kingdom  had  in 
it  some  povver  for  such  contemners  to  fear. 

:m 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  one  subject  treated  in  this  chapter  is  the  case  of 
incest  in  the  church  of  Corinth.     Paul  presents  the  facts 


201  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  V. 

(v.  1.  2) ;  directs  the  excommunication  of  the  offender 
(v.  3-5) ;  gives  his  reasons,  viz.  the  pernicious  influence  of 
such  an  offender  within  their  communion  (v.  6-8  :  enumer- 
ates offences  which  demand  excommunication  (v.  9-11) ; 
the  church  responsible  for  her  own  members — not  for  those 
outside  her  pale  (v.  12, 13). 

1.  It  is  reported  commonly  that  there  is  fornication 
among  you,  and.  such  fornication  as  is  not  so  much  as 
named  among  the  Gentiles,  that  one  should  have  his 
father's  wife. 

2.  And  ye  are  puffed  up,  and  have  not  rather  mourned, 
that  he  that  hath  done  this  deed  might  be  taken  away 
from  among  you. 

This  great  scandal  reached  Paul  at  Ephesua  by  common 
rumor.  We  may  remember  that  the  two  cities  were  in 
easy  and  frequent  communication.  It  was  a  horrible  case 
of  incest,  such  as  would  disgrace  even  Gentile  society* — 
a  man  marrying  his  father's  wife. 

From  2  Cor.  7  :  12  it  would  seem  that  the  father  was  an 
injured  man,  '^suffering  v^rong,"  and  therefore,  still  living. 
Other  particulars  of  the  case  are  unknown. — The  offence 
was  flagrant,  one  which  the  law  of  nature  and  the  law  of 
God   (Lev.  18  :  8)  unite  to  condemn. 

Strange  to  think  of,  they  were  ''puffed  up — probably 
Paul  means,  not  because  of,  but  in  spite  of,  notwithstand- 
ing, this  shameful  crime  in  their  church.  It  may  be  sup- 
posed that  he  was  prominent,  perhaps  popular  in  the  city — 
a  man  for  a  carnal  church  to  be  proud  of  in  their  commun- 
ion— inasmuch  as  they  took  not  the  Chinstian  but  the 
worldly  view  of  the  case  and  of  their  duty.  The  Christian 
view  would  have  filled  them  Avith  mourning  and  shame. 

3.  For  I  verily,  as  absent  in  body,  but  present  in  spirit, 
have  judged  already,  as  though  I  were  present,  concern- 
ing him  that  hath  so  done  this  deed. 

4.  In  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  when  ye  are 
gathered  together,  and  my  spirit,  with  the  power  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ, 

5.  To  deliver  such  a  one  unto  Satan,  for  the  destruc- 

*  Cicero  calls  this  very  sin — "  Seel  us  incredibile,  inauditum" — 
an  incredible,  unheard  of  crime. 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  V.  205 

tion  of  the  flesh,  that  the  Spirit  may  be  saved  in  the  day 
of  the  Lord  Jesus, 

Paul  conld  adjudge  such  a  case  as  well  absent  as  present, 
the  crime  being  public,  palpable,  undeniable.  He  enjoins 
therefore,  that  they  gather  together  in  church  capacity 
and  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  and  in  the  exercise 
of  their  power  from  Him,  sever  this  offender  from  their 
communion — expressed  here  as  "  delivering  him  unto 
Satan  for  the  destruction  of  the  flesh,  that  the  spirit  might 
be  saved"  at  last.  Similarly  Paul  said  (1  Tim.  1  :  19,  20) 
of  Hymeneus  and  Alexander — "AVhom  I  have  delivered 
unto  Satan  that  they  may  learn  not  to  blaspheme."  Satan 
is  assumed  to  be  the  ruler  of  the  realms  outside  the  church, 
so  that  to  be  cast  out  of  the  church  was  being  turned  over 
into  the  domain  of  Satan.  We  need  not  suppose  that  Satan 
inflicted  the  destruction,  inasmuch  as  it  is  not  his  way  to 
punish,  his  own  servants  for  service  done  to  himself.  This 
punishment  came  through  the  miraculous  power  vested  in 
the  apostles.  See  other  cases  Acts  13  :  G-11  and  compare 
Jam.  5  :  14-lG  and  1  Cor.  11  :  30-32.— The  end  sought 
was  not  the  ruin  but  the  salvation  of  his  soul. 

That  the  sentence  of  excision  was  to  be  passed  by  the 
church  convened  in  their  church  capacity  assumes  a  con- 
gregational form  of  polity. — Paul  was  with  them  in  spirit, 
and  they  were  to  think  of  him  as  concurring,  because  they 
had  his  official  decision  upon  the  case. 

6.  Your  glorying  is  not  good.  Know  ye  not  that  a 
little  leaven  leaveneth  the  whole  lump  ? 

7.  Purge  out  therefore  the  old  leaven,  that  ye  may  be 
a  new  lump,  as  ye  are  unleavened.  For  even  Christ  our 
passover  is  sacrificed  for  us : 

8.  Therefore  let  us  keep  the  feast,  not  with  old  leaven, 
neither  with  the  leaven  of  malice  and  wickedness ;  but 
with  the  unleavened  bread  of  sincerity  and  truth. 

Is  this  ''glorying"  to  be  taken  in  a  general  or  a  special 
sense — i.  e.  as  referring  in  general  to  the  pi'cvalent  self- 
conceit,  pride  of  worldly  wisdom,  and  pride  in  the  popu- 
lar spiritual  gifts  of  the  age  which  characterized  the 
churches  ;  or  as  referring  specially  to  being  "  puffed  up  " 
(v.  2.)  notioithstanding  this  scandalous  crime  in  their 
church  ? — The  latter  seems  to  me  most  probable,  because 


206  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  V. 

most  pertinent  to  the  special  facts  of  the  case  :  because  this 
particular  manifestation  of  pride  was  too  bad  to  be  passed 
without  special  notice  ;  and  because  the  following  context 
sustains  it — the  thought  being  that  such  glorying  strangely 
ignored  the  fearful  peril  of  contamination  which  such  an 
offence,  unrebuked,  must  incur.  A  pertinent  proverb  helps 
Paul  to  put  the  case  forcibly  ; — A  very  little  leaven  perme- 
ates and  changes  the  whole  mass.  If  leaven  be  considered 
defiling,  it  defiles  the  whole. — Naturally  his  mind  reverts 
to  that  stringent  prohibition  of  leaven  which  impressed  it- 
self into  Jewish  history  in  their  first  great  national  festival, 
the  Passover  (Ex.  13  :)  It  behoved  them  as  the  people  of 
Christ  to  be  carefully,  rigidly  tcnleavened,  for  Christ  their 
Paschal  Lamb,  had  been  slain  for  them,  and  therefore  in  this 
gospel  scheme  the  new  Passover  must  be  kept,  having  never 
a  particle  of  the  old  leaven  of  sin  in  all  their  borders,  but  only 
the  unleavened  bread,  symbolic  of  purity,  sincerity,  truth. 
This  illustration  must  have  been  impressively  pertinent 
and  clear  to  those  of  his  readers  who  had  sufficient  knowl- 
edge of  the  patent  facts  of  Jewish  history  to  see  its  points 
in  their  full  strength. 

It  is  plain  that  Paul  saw  in  the  Paschal  Lamb  a  real  and 
pertinent  type  of  Christ  as  an  atoning  saci'ifice  for  sin.  As 
the  blood  of  the  ancient  Paschal  Lamb,  sprinkled  over  the 
doors  of  the  Hebrew  dwellings,  caused  the  destroying  angel 
to  2^rtss  over  those  households  unsmitten,  while  in  every 
household  of  Egypt,  he  smote  all  the  first-born  in  death  ; 
so  Christ's  blood  sprinkled  upon  the  penitent  sinner's  soul 
signifies  pardon  and  guaranties  salvation. 

9.  I  wrote  unto  you  in  an  epistle  not  to  company  with 
fornicators  : 

10.  Yet  not  altogether  with  the  fornicators  of  this 
world,  or  with  the  covetous,  or  extortioners,  or  with 
idolaters  :  for  then  must  ye  needs  go  out  of  the  world. 

11.  But  now  I  have  written  unto  you  not  to  keep 
company,  if  any  man  tliat  is  called  a  brother  be  a  forni- 
cator, or  covetous,  or  an  idolator,  or  a  railer,  or  a  drunk- 
ard, or  an  extortioner :  with  such  a  one  no  not  to  eat. 

This  allusion  to  "an  epistle" — "I  wrote  unto  you  in 
the  epistle  " — (past  historic  tense  and  giving  the  noun  the 
article) — must  be  understood  to  refer  to  a  previous  letter 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  V.  207 

of  which  no  trace  save  this  remains.  It  need  be  no  surprise 
that  some  of  Paul's  letters  have  failed  of  transmission  to  us. 
They  answered  their  original  purpose  we  must  suppose,  and 
were  not  put  into  the  sacred  canon  (perhaps)  for  the  same 
reason  which  left  out  so  many  of  the  blessed  words  of  the 
Master  himself  (Jn.  21  :  25) — In  that  epistle  he  had  for- 
bidden them  to  mingle  socially  with  fornicators — but  he 
could  not  apply  this  prohibition  universally — to  all  forni- 
cators— for  the  rule  if  applied  in  a  city  corrupt  as  Corinth 
to  all  such  characters  would  compel  tlieni  to  go  out  of  the 
world.  But  within  the  church,  the  guilty  man  being 
''called  a  brother,"  they  must  refuse  positively  to  associate 
with  him  socially, — even  at  the  common  table. — The  mooted 
question  of  interpretation  on  this  passage  is  whether  this 
eating  refers  to  the  Lord's  table  only,  or  to  the  social  table 
in  every  man's  house. 

Without  any  reasonable  doubt  the  latter — the  private 
house — must  be  the  true  interpretation  : — (a)  Because  this 
is  the  obvious  sense  of  Paul's  words,  from  which  we  must 
not  swerve  except  for  strong  reasons  : — (b)  Because  if  re- 
ferred to  the  Lord's  table  only,  it  would  practically  signify 
nothing  beyond  excommunication  and  would  scarcely  bear 
at  all  upon  what  is  here  the  main  point,  viz.,  keeping  "  com- 
pany " — mingling  socially  with  fornicators  (v.  9) — (c)  Be- 
cause to  forbid  their  eating  at  the  Lord's  table  with  forni- 
cators, idolaters,  drunkards,  is  not  very  emphatic — rather 
in  such  a  connection  as  this,  would  be  decidedly  weak  : — 
and  finally  (d)  Because  under  the  usages  of  oriental  soci- 
ety, the  eating  together  at  a  common  table  had  far  more 
significance  than  it  has  in  occidental  life.'  It  meant  more  ; 
involved  a  higlier  friendship  ;  carried  with  it  a  far  more 
positive  indorsement  of  the  character  of  your  guest. 

Indeed,  it  is  only  in  the  light  of  this  very  special  and 
peculiar  significance  of  eating  at  the  common  table  in  the 
age  of  Paul,  that  this  precept  becomes  difficult  and  delicate 
when  we  would  apply  it  to  the  question  of  the  common 
table  under  the  usages  and  assumed  significance  of  our 
times.  It  becomes  difficult  now  to  lay  down  a  positive,  in- 
variable rule,  because  sometimes,  eating  socially  at  the 
same  table  would  have  but  the  least  possible  significance. 
Christians  must  study  the  spirit  of  Paul's  rule  and  obey  it, 
while  at  the  same  time  its  letter  cannot  be  held  to  be  under 
all  circumstances  binding. 


208  1  CORmTHIANS.— CHAP.  V. 

12,  For  wliat  have  I  to  do  to  judge  tliem  also  tliat 
are  without  ?  do  not  ye  judge  them  that  are  within  ? 

13.  But  them  that  are  without,  God  judgeth.  There- 
fore put  away  from  among  yourselves  that  wicked  per- 
son. 

These  principles  apply  only  to  members  of  your  church 
— not  to  men  outside  your  church  communion.  Over  the 
latter  you  have  no  jurisdiction  ;  you  leave  them  to  God 
alone.  Over  your  own  members  you  have  jurisdiction  and 
are  bound  to  exercise  it. 


-zm — 


CHAPTER  VI. 

In  tracing  the  course  of  thought  in  this  chapter,  Ave 
readily  make  v.  1-11,  one  section — its  leading  topic  being 
— professed  christians  going  to  law  with  their  brethren — 
a  theme  which  suggests  that  only  the  righteous — never  the 
Avicked — inherit  God's  kingdom  (v.  9-11).  Then  v.  12 
breaks  abruptly  into  a  subject,  only  named  here  but  taken 
up  for  full  discussion  in  chap's  8  and  10  ; — from  Avhich 
Paul  passes  to  admonish  against  fornication  {\.  14-20). 

1.  Dare  any  of  you,  having  a  matter  against  another, 
go  to  law  before  the  unjust,  and  not  before  the  saints  ? 

2.  Do  ye  not  know  that  the  saints  shall  judge  the 
world  ?  and  if  the  world  shall  be  judged  by  you,  are  ye 
unworthy  to  judge  the  smallest  matters  ? 

3.  Know   ye'  not  that  we  shall  jud^e  angels  ?  hoAV  - 
much  more  things  that  pertain  to  this  lite  ? 

Paul  makes  his  first  word  ''  dare,"  emphatic  by  posi- 
tion— as  if  to  express  his  amazement  at  the  moral  hardi- 
hood Avhich  this  thing  evinces.  IIoav  deeply  do  ye  disgrace 
yourselves  and  the  church  of  God  by  carrying  your  litiga- 
tions before  ungodly  men,  instead  of  arranging  them 
among  yourselves,  unobserved  by  the  Avicked. 

The  first  point  difficult  of  interpretation  is  the  sense  in 
which  "the  saints  shall  judge  the  world,"  and  "judge 
angels." 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VI.  200 

Inasmuch  as  the  only  angels  to  be  judged  are  the  fallen, 
and  these,  at  the  same  time  with  the  beings  of  our  world, 
the  two  points  are  essentially  one. — To  what  then  does 
Paul  refer,  and  in  what  sense  do  the  "saints  judge  the 
world?" 

1.  Negatively,  certainly  not  in  the  same  sense  in  which 
Christ  is  final  judge.  This  is  not  supposable  ; — is  in  no 
manner  possible. 

2.  Not  in  the  sense  of  associate  judges — assessors  on 
the  same  great  throne  of  judgment  in  a  subordinate  ca- 
pacity ;  for  of  this,  there  is  not  the  slightest  hint  in  the 
scriptures  ;  and  the  scripture  account  of  the  final  judg- 
ment scene  virtually  precludes  this  supposition. 

3.  I  see  no  good  reason  to  assume  its  reference  to  what 
Christ  may  be  supposed  to  indicate  in  Mat.  19:  28  and 
Luke  22:  30; — "When  the  Son  of  man  shall  sit  in  the 
throne  of  his  glory,  ye  also  sluill  sit  upon  twelve  thrones, 
judging  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel."  '•  I  appoint  unto  you 
a  kingdom  as  my  Father  hath  appointed  me,  that  ye  may 
eat  and  drink  at  my  table  in  my  kingdom,  and  sit  on 
thrones  judging  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel." — This  is  a 
very  different  scene  from  that  of  the  final  judgment,  being 
a  permanent  arrangement,  not  a  special  assize  of  court  ; 
and  referring  very  specifically,  not  to  judging  a  wicked 
world  and  fallen  angels,  but  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel. 

Positively  ;  the  only  sense  which  the  nature  of  the  case 
admits,  or  which  the  very  definite  description  of  the  final 
judgment  (Mat.  25)  can  provide  for,  is  this  ;  That  they 
judge  the  world  and  angels  hij  their  life-record — by  their 
example  of  righteousness,  set  over  against  wickedness  ;  of 
humble  self-sacrificing  benevolence  set  over  against  self- 
conceited  Pharisaic  assumption,  combined  with  the  utter 
negation  of  all  really  good  deeds.  In  Matthew  25:  34:-45  ; 
our  Lord  drew  the  picture  in  glowing  light.  The  life-tes- 
timony of  moral  beings  of  the  same  race  with  the  sinning 
men  judged  there,  coming  out  of  the  same  world,  even 
from  the  same  household  perhaps — from  amid  the  same 
surroundings — yet  having  lived  unto  Grod,  became  a  tre- 
mendous condemnation  of  their  wicked  fellowmen,  and 
scarcely  less  so,  of  fallen  angels. — This  sense  is  the  only  one 
admissible.  It  is  also  intrinsically  true,  and  of  immense 
moral  power  ;  and  moreover  harmonizes  perfectly  with 
Christ's  own  minute  description  of  that  judgment  scene. 


210  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VI. 

It  is  also  entirel}''  pertinent  to  Paul's  argument  here.  If 
the  saints  are  to  live  such  lives  that  Jesus  can  bring  their 
life-record  into  court  (so  to  speak)  to  condemn  the  wicked 
at  the  last  day,  surely  there  must  be  righteousness  and 
equity  enough  in  the  church  to  Judge  the  small  matters 
that  may  spring  up  among  yourselves.  To  your  shame  be 
it  if  ye  are  incompetent  to  judge  the  smallest  matters  of 
this  life  ! 

4.  If  then  ye  have  judgments  of  things  pertaining  to 
this  life,  set  them  to  judge  who  are  least  esteemed  in  the 
church. 

5.  I  speak  to  your  shame.  Is  it  so,  that  there  is  not 
a  wise  man  among  you  ?  no,  not  one  that  shall  be  able  to 
judge  between  his  brethren  ? 

6.  But  brother  goeth  to  law.  with  brother,  and  that 
before  the  unbelievers. 

Here  Tischendorf  very  forcibly  makes  the  last  clause 
of  v.  4  interrogative — thus  : — If  ye  have  occasion  to  settle 
questions  at  issue  among'brethren  pertaining  to  matters  of 
this  life,  do  ye  put  on  the  seat  as  judges  men  of  no  esteem 
in  the  church — men  whom  ye  would  not  receive  into  your 
church,  whose  moral  character  you  could  not  endorse  as 
Christian  ? 

Y.  ]^ow  therefore  there  is  utterly  a  fault  among  you, 
because  ye  go  to  law  one  with  another.  Why  do  ye  not 
rather  take  wrong  ?  Why  do  ye  not  rather  suffer  your- 
selves to  be  defrauded  ? 

8.  Nay,  ye  do  wrong,  and  defraud,  and  that  your 
brethren. 

Paul  states  his  doctrine  with  the  utmost  precision  and 
cxplicitness,  unqualifiedly  condemning  this  going  to  law 
before  the  civil  courts  where  ungodly  men  are  supposed  to 
preside.  Better,  he  says,  to  suffer  wrong  and  allow  your- 
selves to  be  defrauded. — But,  alas  ! — in  that  church  are 
men  who  do  wrong  and  who  defraud  even  their  own  breth- 
ren !     A  grave  allegation  ! 

As  to  the  practical  bearing  of  Paul's  doctrine  upon  our 
own  times  it  may  be  suggested — (a.)  That  it  bears  only  in- 
directly upon  questions  at  issue  between  parties — one  in 
and  the  other  not  in  the  church,  whether  the  brother  in 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VI.  211 

the  church  be  prosecutor  or  defendant  Plainly  a  brother 
in  the  church  should  use  all  the  judicious  means  in  his 
power  to  avoid  coming  into  court  as  prosecutor,  or  being 
forced  in  as  defendant.  But  Paul's  doctrine  does  not  seem 
to  make  a  rule  absolutely  forbidding  it. 

(b.)  As  to  cases  wholly  within  the  church,  arbitration 
before  chosen  men,  or  the  submission  of  the  case  to  the 
church  in  whole,  will,  in  most  if  not  all  cases,  provide  ad- 
equate means  for  settlement  without  resort  to  civil  law. 
The  advance  in  sensible  jurisprudence  under  the  influence 
of  Christian  civilization  has  made  adequate  provision  for 
arbitration,  and  for  making  its  decisions  final  before  the 
law. 

9.  Know  ye  not  that  the  unrighteous  shall  not  in- 
herit the  kingdom  of  God  ?  Be  not  deceived  :  neither 
fornicators,. nor  idolaters,  nor  adulterers,  nor  effeminate, 
nor  abusers  of  themselves  witli  mankind, 

10.  J^or  thieves,  nor  covetous,  nor  drunkards,  nor  re- 
vilers,  nor  extortioners,  shall  inherit  the  kingdom  of 
God. 

11.  And  such  were  some  of  jou  :  but  ye  are  washed, 
but  ye  are  sanctified,  but  ye  are  justified  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,  and  by  the  Spirit  of  our  God. 

Paul  is  startled  by  the  presence  of  flagrant  sin  in  that 
church  (horrible  incest  and  litigations  before  the  ungodly), 
and  solemnly  fears  that  the  tone  of  common  morality  has 
sunk  dangerously  low.  Have  ye  forgotten,  or  never  known, 
that  the  unrighteous  will  not  inherit  God's  kingdom  ? 
Are  not  some  of  you  deceiving  yourselves  on  this  point  to 
your  destruction  ?  The  gospel  doctrine  puts  no  truth  in 
clearer  light  or  with  greater  emphasis  than  this  ; — that 
these  sins  of  the  flesh  (most  of  them  are  of  this  sort) — all 
bold,  unblushing  offences — preclude  men  from  God's  pure 
kingdom.  Here  it  occurs  to  Paul  that  some  of  his  flock  at 
Corinth  are  not  of  this  class,  but  "have  been  washed,  sanc- 
tified, justified  " — a  fine  setting  forth  of  what  the  Gospel 
through  the  blood  of  Christ  and  the  grace  of  the  Spirit, 
does  for  human  souls. 

12.  All  things  are  lawful  unto  me,  but  all  things  are 
not  expedient :  all  things  are  lawful  for  me,  but  I  will 
not  be  brought  under  the  power  of  any. 


212  1  CORINTHIANS.-CHAP.  VI. 

13.  Meats  for  the  belly,  and  tlie  belly  for  meats :  but 
God  sball  destroy  botb  it  and  them.  Is^ow  the  body  is 
not  for  fornication,  but  for  the  Lord ;  and  the  Lord  for 
the  body. 

14.  And  God  hath  both  raised  up  the  Lord,  and  will 
also  raise  us  up  by  his  own  power, 

V.  12  has  no  apparent  connection  of  thought  with  the 
previous  part  of  the  chapter.  It  is  a  new  theme — the  same 
which  he  resumes  in  Chap.  8  and  10.  In  10  :  23  we  find 
nearly  the  same  words  as  here,  the  last  clause,  however, 
being  there — "  All  things  do  not  edify ;"  here,  *'  I  will  not 
be  brought  under  the  power  of  any  " — I  will  be  a  slave  to 
no  appetite.  We  may  suppose  that  Paul  wished  to  discuss 
the  law  of  conscience  in  regard  to  meats  that  had  been  or 
might  have  been  offered  to  an  idol ;  that  he  took  up  the 
subject  here,  but  was  diverted  to  a  kindred  subject  relating 
to  the  use  and  abuse  of  the  body ;  and  consequently,  de- 
ferring the  former,  proceeded  to  the  latter — the  sin  of  for- 
nication, which  leads  the  thought  through  the  balance  of 
this  chapter,  and,  in  its  various  aspects,  through  the  whole 
of  Chapter  7. 

Meats  are  provided  of  God  in  the  realm  of  nature  for 
the  necessities  of  the  body  :  the  body  has  its  natural  adap- 
tations for  meat :  but  God  will  ultimately  abolish  both  the 
belly  and  the  meats.  Their  sphere  is  only  for  the  present. 
God  will  soon  put  them  both  away  as  having  fulfilled  their 
mission. — While  they  exist,  let  it  be  remembered  that  the 
body  has  nobler  ends  than  fornication.  It  was  created  for 
the  service  of  the  Lord,  and  should  be  held  sacred  to  that 
service.  In  Paul's  antithetic  style,  he  suggests  that  the 
Lord  is  also  for  the  body — devoting,  pledging  his  divine 
power  for  the  resurrection  and  glorification  of  this  body  in 
the  end.  This  great  fact — the  resurrection — is  obviously 
in  Palil's  thought — brought  out  fully  in  what  follows  : — 
"  The  Lord  hath  both  raised  up  Christ's  human  body,  and 
will  in  his  own  time  raise  up  our  bodies  by  a  similar  glori- 
ous resurrection.  Here,  as  everywhere,  the  raising  of  Je- 
sus by  the  power  of  God  is  the  pledge  and  also  the  illustra- 
tion of  the  future  resurrection  of  the  bodies  of  all  his 
saints. 

15.  Know  ye  not  that  your  bodies  are  the  members 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VI.  213 

of  Christ  ?  shall  I  then  take  the  members  of  Christ,  and 
make  tluni  the  members  of  a  harlot  ?     God  forbid. 

16.  What !  know  ye  not  that  he  which  is  joined  to  a 
harlot  is  one  body  ?  for  two,  saith  he,  shall  be  one  flesh. 

17.  But  he  that  is  joined  to  the  Lord  is  one  spirit. 

18.  Flee  fornication.  Every  sin  that  a  man  doeth  is 
without  the  body ;  but  he  that  committeth  fornication 
sinneth  against  his  own  body. 

19.  What !  know  ye  not  that  your  body  is  the  tem- 
ple of  the  Holy  Ghost  lohich  is  in  you,  which  ye  have 
of  God,  and  ye  are  not  your  own  ? 

20.  For  ye  are  bought  with  a  price :  therefore  glorify 
God  in  your  body,  and  in  your  spirit,  which  are  God's. 

Our  bodies  are  "the  members  of  Christ,"  in  the  sense,, 
not  of  being  the  organs  of  his  human  body,  but  organs  of 
these  bodies  which  are  really  and  wholly  his,  for  all  service, 
created  for  him  and  consecrated  (so  they  should  be)  for 
whatever  service  they  are  adapted.  As  our  souls  and  all 
their  utmost  powers  are  the  Lord's,  so  also  are  our  bodies 
the  Lord's. — Now  shall  I  tear  away  these  bodily  organs 
from  the  ownership  and  use  of  Christ,  and  give  them  to  a 
harlot  ?     Hoi-rible  ! 

The  turn  given  in  v.  17  is  noticeable  ;  he  who  joins 
himself  to  the  Lord  as  if  under  the  marriage  bond  and  its 
relations,  becomes  one  with  him,  not  in  body  but  in  spirit. 
Such  union  with  a  harlot  makes  the  parties  one  in  body — 
this  union  with  the  Lord,  one  in  spirit. 

Flee  fornication,  as  ye  would  a  pursuing,  deadly  foe. 
Other  sins  work  their  ruin  outside  of  man's  body  :  this  is 
sin  against  the  body  itself. — Alas  !  how  many  murdered 
bodies  sink  rotting  to  their  graves,  witnessing  to  the  fear- 
ful truth  of  these  words  ! 

The  Christian  doctrine — your  bodies  temples  of  the 
Holy  Ghost — should  smite  down  all  temptation  to  this  sin  ! 
The  Holy  Ghost  ivithin  you,  offering  his  pure  and  blessed 
presence  and  joy,  asking  only  that  the  temple  be  kept  un- 
polluted ; — how  should  ye  hail  tliis  promise  and  welcome 
this  best  gift  of  heaven  ! 

The  improved  text  closes  v.  20  with  the  words — 
"  Therefore  glorify  God  in  your  bodies  " — omitting  the 
words — "and  in  your  spirit  which  are  God's."  The  body 
10 


214  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VI. 

is  the  sj)ecial  theme  here — the  only  thing  germain  to  the 
argument. 


-<uyi- 


CHAPTEEVII. 

This  chaiater  is  unique,  treating  of  one  genei'al  subject, 
yet  under  several  distinct  and  various  aspects  ; — the  general 
subject  being  the  sexual  and  marital  relations  : — specially — 
the  mutual  duties  of  husbands  and  wives  (v.  1-9);  directions 
in  regard  to  the  withdrawing  [''  departing,"]  of  the  wife 
and  "putting  away"  by  the  husband  (v.  10,  11);  the  case 
of  families  in  which  one  party  becomes  christian  while  the 
other  remains  heathen  (v.  12-16).  Christianity  does  not 
disrupt  society,  or  require  change  of  life-business  (v.  17-24). 
Concerning  virgins  ;  the  wisdom  of  marrying  and  giving 
in  marriage  (v.  25-40). 

Of  this  chapter  in  general  it  may  be  noticed  that  it  was 
elicited  by  questions  propounded  to  Paul  in  writing  ;  that 
these  questions  were  sprung  upon  the  church  at  Corinth, 
perhaps,  [not  certainly]  by  the  appearance  among  them  of 
ascetic  notions  which  contravened  the  law  of  nature  and 
the  law  of  God  relating  to  marriage  ;  and  almost  certainly 
by  the  prevailing  corruption  of  society  in  Corinth — a  city 
which  seems  to  have  surpassed  most  cities  of  its  time  in 
general  licentiousness. 

Also  let  us  note  that  we  nowhere  else  see  so  broad  a  line 
drawn  between  what  Paul  said  on  his  own  personal  judg- 
ment, and  what  he  taught  as  from  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord. 

1.  !N^o\v  concerning  the  things  whereof  ye  wrote  unto 
me :  It  is  good  for  a  man  not  to  tonch  a  woman. 

2.  Nevertheless  to  avoid  fornication,  let  every  man 
have  his  own  wife,  and  let  every  woman  have  her  own 
husband. 

3.  Let  the  husband  render  unto  the  wife  due  benevo- 
lence :  and  likewise  also  the  wife  unto  the  husband. 

4.  The  wife  hath  not  power  of  her  own  body,  but  the 
liusband :  and  likewise  also  the  husband  hath  not  power 
of  his  own  body,  but  the  wife. 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHA^.   VII.  215 

5.  Defraud  ye  not  one  the  otlier,  except  it  he  with 
consent  for  a  time,  that  ye  may  give  yourselves  to  fasting 
and  prayer :  and  come  together  again,  that  Satan  tem]3t 
you  not  for  your  incontinency. 

6.  But  1  speak  this  by  permission,  and  not  of  com- 
mandment. 

7.  Tor  I  would  that  all  men  were  even  as  I  myself. 
But  every  man  hath  his  proper  gift  of  God,  one  after 
this  manner,  and  another  after  that. 

8.  I  say  therefore  to  the  unmarried  and  widows,  It 
is  good  for  them  if  they  abide  even  as  I. 

9.  But  if  they  cannot  contain,  let  them  marry ;  for 
it  is  better  to  marry  than  to  burn. 

These  directions  for  the  married  have  at  least  the  merit 
of  being  put  in  terms  that  need  no  explanation. — In  v.  6,  it 
were  better  to  translate  not  *' permission  "  but  "conces- 
sion." I  say  this  out  of  concession  to  the  demands  of  the 
sexual  nature — andacording  to  my  personal  judgment,  and 
not  by  commandment  from  the  Lord. 

10.  And  unto  the  married  I  command,  yet  not  I 
but  the  Lord:  Let  not  the  wife  depart  from  her  hus- 
band: 

11.  And  if  she  depart,  let  her  remain  unmarried, 
or  be  reconciled  to  her  husband :  and  let  not  the  hus- 
band put  away  MswHq. 

These  verses  refer  to  cases  of  intentional  separation, 
supposed  to  be  occasioned  by  want  of  harmony  and  love  ; 
by  disagreements,  quarrels,  alienations.  Noticeably  the 
wife  is  said  to  "  depart ;  "  the  husband,  to  '"'put  away  his 
wife  " — in  the  former  case  ;  of  her  own  motion  ;  in  the  lat- 
ter by  expulsion  on  the  part  of  her  husband.  The  hus- 
band does  not  "'  depart ; "  nor  the  wife  expel  him. — In 
Corinthian  society  the  wife  is  the  weaker  party  and  is 
therefore  before  us  here  as  the  party  aggrieved,  and  either 
seeking  relief  by  leaving,  or  suffering  under  forcible  expul- 
sion.— In  these  cases  Paul  speaks,  not  uj)on  his  own  author- 
ity but  upon  the  Lord's,  commanding  the  wife  not  to  de- 
part ;  or,  if  she  does,  to  remain  without  marrying  again, 
or  if  possible,  to  be  reconciled  to  her  husband.  "To  remain 
unmarried  would  leave  the  door  open  for  such  reconcilia- 


216  1  COJSiNTHIANS.— CHAP.   VII. 

tion. — The  husband  is  also  forbidden  to  put  away  his  wife. 
— Tlius  Christianity  brought  its  full  power  to  bear  upon 
the  permanence  of  the  marriage  relation  and  against  its 
disruption  under  this  class  of  divisive  influences. 

12.  But  to  tbe  rest  speak  I,  not  the  Lord:  If  any 
brother  hath  a  wife  that  believeth  not,  and  she  be 
pleased  to  dwell  with  him,  let  him  not  put  her  away. 

13.  And  the  woman  which  hath  a  husband  that 
believeth  not,  and  if  he  be  pleased  to  dwell  with  her, 
let  her  not  leave  him. 

14.  For  the  unbelieving  husband  is  sanctified  by  the 
wife,  and  the  unbelieving  wife  is  sanctified  by  the  hus- 
band :  else  were  your  children  unclean ;  but  now  are 
they  holy. 

These  verses  put  a  case  of  a  sort  very  likely  to  occur 
Avhen  the  gospel  was  making  converts  from  heathenism  ; — 
a  christian  man  having  a  heathen  wife  ; — a  christian  woman 
having  a  heathen  husband.  Hence  almost  inevitably  the 
question  must  arise  whether  Christianity  required  the  be- 
lieving husband  to  put  away  his  heathen  wife,  or  the  be- 
lieving wife  to  leave  her  unbelieving  husband. — Paul  an- 
swers this  on  his  own  authority,  and  most  decidedly  in  the 
negative,  provided  the  heathen  party  were  wilhng  to  re- 
main. In  V.  14,  he  assigns  his  reason ;  '*'  For  the  unbe- 
lieving husband  is  sanctified  by  the  wife,  and  also  the  un- 
believing wife  is  sanctified  by  the  believing  husband : 
else  were  you  children  unclean ;  now  they  are  holy." 

The  words — "holy"  and  '•'unclean"  as  applied  to 
children  [tekna] — offspring  by  birth,  must  certainly  be 
taken  in  the  putative,  not  the  intrinsically  essential  sense 
— i.  e.  the  children  are  nominally  christian,  not  pagan  ; 
the  family  becomes  a  christian  household  by  the  Christi- 
anity of  either  of  the  parents.  Whatever  prerogatives  be- 
long to  the  christian  family  accrue  to  this  by  virtue  of  the 
faith  of  either  the  husband  or  the  wife. — I  see  no  occasion 
to  dissent  from  this  very  obvious  sense  of  these  words,  nor 
can  I  see  reason  to  doubt  that  Paul  had  distinctly  in  mind 
the  covenant  relation  which  christian  households  sustain  to 
God  in  reference  to  the  consecration  of  their  offspring  to 
him  under  the  great  promise,  "  I  will  be  a  God  to  thee 
and  to  thy  seed  after  thee."     Paul  interprets  this  cove- 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.   VII.  217 

nant  to  apply  to  '*'tliee"  in  a  case  where  only  one  of  the 
two  parents  is  a  believer.  Most  tenderly  and  mercifully 
God  provides  that  the  personal  faith  of  either  parent  shall 
be  honored  as  sufficient  ground  to  claim  all  the  preroga- 
tives and  promises  of  this  most  precious  covenant. 

In  V.  14,  the  older  manuscripts  read  ; — not  "sanctified 
by  the  husband"  but  sanctified  by  the  "hrother." 

15.  Bnt  if  the  unbelieving  depart,  let  liim  depart. 
A  brother  or  a  sister  is  not  under  bondage  in  siicli  cases: 
but  God  hath  called  us  to  peace. 

16.  For  what  knowest  thou,  O  wife,  whether  thou 
slialt  save  thy  husband  ?  or  how  knowest  thou,  O  man, 
whether  thou  shalt  save  thy  wife  ? 

In  vs.  12,  13,  is  one  alternative — •'•'  if  he  or  she  be  will- 
ing to  remain  ; " — Here  is  the  other  alternative  :  If  the 
unbelieving  party  is  not  willing  to  remain  but  in  fact 
departs  ;  then  this  is  the  law  or  rule  of  proceeding  ; — Let 
him  or  her  depart.  If  you  cannot  prevent  it,  you  must 
submit  to  it ;  you  need  not  feel  yourself  enslaved,  in  the 
bondage  of  unrest,  anxiety,  agony  of  conscience  ;  for  God 
hath  called  us  to  peace  and  would  have  us  make  the  best 
of  circumstances  so  peculiarly  trying  as  these. 

Here  we  must  meet  the  very  grave  question — whether 
this  '''  departing,"  or  this  ''  letting  depart,"  is  simply  a 
quiet  separation,  at  the  will  of  the  unbelieving  party  who 
insists  on  going,  yet  involving  no  real  disruption  of  the 
marriage  bond  ;  or  is  a  real  divorce,  absolutely  terminating 
the  marriage  relation. 

I  answer  ; — The  former  most  certainly,  and  for  tliese 
reasons  : 

1.  This  ''  departing  "  is  manifestly  the  same  which  is 
contemplated  in  vs.  12-14.  The  same  words  are  here  as 
there,  and  this  case  (as  said  above)  is  simply  the  other  al- 
tei'native. 

2.  To  signify  a  real  divorce,  other  language  should  and 
would  have  been  used  (e.  g.  as  in  Eom.  7:  2,  3)  : — words 
which  Avould  imply  and  involve  the  severing  of  the  mar- 
riage bond. 

3.  The  context  (v.  10)  certainly  assumes  that  the  be- 
lieving party,  thus  forsaken,  should  still  hope,  pray,  labor, 
for  the  conversion  of  the  unbelieving  party  ;  and  of  course 
if  successful,  then  reunite  the  family  and  resame  the  mari- 


218  1  C011INTHIANS.--CHAP.  VII. 

tal  duties.  By  no  means  does  Christianity  allow  the  door 
to  be  closed  against  the  reunion  of  husband  and  wife, 
parted  by  unlike  symi^athies  of  christian  faith  and  life,  but 
brought  into  harmony  by  the  praying  wife  saving  her  hus- 
band or  the  praying  husband  saving  the  wife. 

4.  The  consequences  which  in  that  age  must  have  en- 
sued from  interpreting  this  passage  to  authorize  real 
divorce,  would  have  been  fearful ;  disreputable  to  Christi- 
anity, ruinous  to  the  honor  of  the  gospel. 

ilence  I  must  construe  this  "  letting  depart "  to  signify 
merely  that  God  relieves  the  suffering  party  from  painful 
anxieties,  and  would  invite  him  or  her  to  a  quiet  peace  of 
mind — a  state  most  favorable  to  prayer  and  christian  labor 
for  the  conversion  of  the  offended  and  absenting  party. 

17.  But  as  God  hath  distributed  to  every  man,  as  the 
Lord  hath  called  every  one,  so  let  him  walk.  And  so 
ordain  I  in  all  churches. 

18.  Is  any  man  called  being  circumcised  ?  let  him  not 
become  uncircumcised.  Is  any  called  in  uncircnmcis- 
ion  ?  let  him  not  be  circumcised, 

19.  Circumcision  is  nothing,  and  nncircumcision  is 
nothing,  but  the  keeping  of  the  commandments  of  God. 

20.  Let  every  man  abide  in  the  same  calling  wherein 
he  was  called. 

21.  Art  thou  called  heing  a  servant?  care  not  for  it : 
but  if  thou  mayest  be  made  free,  use  it  rather. 

22.  For  he  that  is  called  in  the  Lord,  being  a  servant, 
is  the  Lord's  freeman :  likewase  also  he  that  is  called, 
heing  free,  is  Christ's  servant. 

23.  Ye  are  bought  with  a  price ;  be  not  ye  the  ser- 
vants of  men. 

24.  Brethren,  let  every  man,  wherein  he  is  called, 
therein  abide  with  God. 

The  doctrine  in  this  passage  is  entirely  simple  ; — Chris- 
tianity does  not  disrupt  society.  It  has  no  mission  to  break 
up  existing  relations,  whether  of  circumcision  or  of  servi- 
tude. Let  converted  men  follow  their  former  vocation 
{supposed  to  be  one  that  does  not  in  itself  involve  sin), — 
Their  relations  to  the  Lord  are  of  supreme  importance, 
quite  eclipsing  all  relations  to  man.  But  they  may  serve 
God  in  any  of  the  innocent  callings  of  common  life. 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VII.  219 

25.  I^ow  concerning  virgins  I  have  no  command- 
ment of  the  Lord :  yet  I  give  my  judgment,  as  one  tliat 
hath  obtained  mercy  of  the  Lord  to  be  faithful. 

26.  I  suppose  tlierefore  that  this  is  good  for  the 
j)resent  distress,  /  say,  that  it  is  good  for  a  man  so  to  be. 

27.  Art  thou  bound  unto  a  wife  ?  seek  not  to  be 
loosed.     Art  thou  loosed  from  a  wife  ?  seek  not  a  wife. 

28.  But  and  if  thou  marry,  thou  hast  not  sinned ; 
and  if  a  virgin  marry,  slie  hath  not  sinned.  Kevertlie- 
less  such  shall  have  trouble  in  the  flesh :  but  I  spare 
you. 

29.  But  this  I  say,  brethren,  the  time  is  short :  it 
remaineth,  that  both  they  that  have  wives  be  as  though 
they  had  none ; 

30.  And  they  that  weep,  as  though  they  wept  not ; 
and  they  that  rejoice,  as  though  they  rejoiced  not ;  and 
they  that  buy,  as  though  they  possessed  not ; 

31.  And  they  that  use  this  world,  as  not  abusing  it : 
for  the  fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away. 

"  Concerning  virgins  "  covers  the  whole  subject  of  re- 
maining unmarried,  applied  to  either  sex,  and  also  the 
collateral  question  of  fathers'  giving  daughters  in  marriage. 
It  is  really  the  expediency  of  marriage  especially  as  affected 
by  existing  circumstances  of  hardship  and  peril  from  with- 
out as  well  as  of  temptation  from  within  ; — involving  there- 
fore special  cares  in  the  family  relation.  On  this  question 
Paul  had  no  commandment  from  the  Lord  ;  and  the  case 
being  so  very  peculiar  in  its  circumstances,  this  should  not 
be  expected. — Paul's  judgment  seems  to  be  that  marriage 
is  and  should  be  the  common  law  of  human  society  ;  but 
that  some  deviation  from  this  common  law  might  be  wise 
under  the  very  special  circumstances  then  existing.  Yet 
he  holds  that  even  under  those  circumstances  marriage 
would  not  be  a  sin.  Such  as  marry  would  have  more 
trouble  in  the  flesh  ;  my  advice  would  spare  you  that 
trouble. 

Paul's  words — "  The  time  is  short " — raise  again  the 
oft-mooted  question  ; — Did  Paul  expect  the  second  coming 
of  Christ  very  shortly  f — Olshausen  thinks  he  certainly  did 
at  that  moment ;  but  subsequently  changed  his  mind  to 
more  sober  views ! 


220  1  CORINTHIANS.— (JHAP.  VII. 

From  this  I  must  dissent,  taking  the  word  ''time" — 
[kairos*]  in  its  usual  sense  of  season — the  present  state  of 
the  times  ;  and  the  participle  (in  the  auth.  vers.  "■  short  ") 
in  the  better  established  sense  of  straitened — peculiar  for 
straitness,  trouble.  So  construed,  the  statement  is  a  cogent 
reason  why  the  married  should  be  as  though  they  were  not ; 
the  weeping  as  though  they  wept  not; — all  as  if  great 
revolutions  might  be  close  at  hand  and  every  class  should 
be  prepared  for  extreme  emergencies.  The  existing  state 
of  things  was  almost  certain  to  jiass  away  soon. 

32.  But  I  would  have  you  without  carefulness.  He 
that  is  unmarried  careth  for  the  things  that  belong  to  the 
Lord,  how  he  may  please  the  Lord : 

33.  But  he  that  is  married  careth  for  the  things  that 
are  of  the  world,  liow  he  may  please  his  wife. 

34.  There  is  difference  also  between  a  wife  and  a  vir- 
gin. The  unmarried  woman  careth  for  the  things  of  the 
Lord,  that  she  may  be  holy  both  in  body  and  in  spirit : 
but  she  that  is  married  careth  for  the  things  of  the  world, 
how  she  may  please  her  husband. 

35.  And  this  I  speak  for  your  OAvn  profit ;  not  that  I 
may  cast  a  snare  upon  you,  but  for  that  which  is  comely, 
and  that  ye  may  attend  upon  the  Lord  without  dis- 
traction. 

The  points  in  this  passage  are  clear;  marriage  brings 
care,  and  also  new  objects  of  love  as  well  as  of  attention 
and  labor.  Hence  either  man  or  woman  may  be  more  free 
from  diverting  avocations,  and  better  able  (other  things 
being  equal)  to  devote  themselves  supremely  to  Christian 
labor,  if  they  remain  unmarried.  Yet  he  would  not  have 
this  advice  become  a  snare  to  them  to  choose  a  course  of 
life  which  they  might  not  well  carry  out.  His  only  aim  is 
(v.  35)  to  counsel  a  way  of  life  that  may  be  reputable 
[honorable,  blameless],  and  also  one  that  should  provide 
for  assiduous  service  for  God  without  distraction. 

*  Of  the  two  Greek  words  for  "  time"  [chronos  and  kairos]  the 
former  suggests  duration — i.  e.  is  chronological ;  the  latter,  the 
quality,  the  character  of  the  time— as  here.  In  English  we  natu- 
rally "use  the  plural  in  this  sense  ;  the  times  are  troublous.  Here 
Paul  uses  the  latter  word,  not  the  former,  and  hence  cannot  be  sup- 
posed to  refer  to  duration. 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VII.  221 

36.  But  if  any  man  tliink  that  he  behaveth  himself 
uncomely  toward  his  virgin,  if  she  pass  the  flower  of  her 
age,  and  need  so  require,  let  him  do  what  he  will,  he 
siuneth  not :  let  them  marry. 

37.  Nevertheless  he  that  standeth  steadfast  in  his 
heart,  having  no  necessity,  but  hath  power  over  his  own 
will,  and  hath  so  decreed  in  his  heart  that  he  will  keep 
his  virgin,  doeth  well. 

38.  So  then  he  that  giveth  her  in  marriage  doeth 
well ;  but  he  that  giveth  her  not  in  marriage  doeth 
better. 

Here  are  real  difficukies  of  interpretation,  on  the  points; 
— Who  are  these  parties  and  what  are  their  respective  re- 
lations ? — Some  of  the  words  and  also  circumstances  favor 
the  view  that  a  father  gives  his  daughter  in  marriage  ; 
others  seem  to  assume  a  man  betrothed  yet  not  married, 
but  supporting  or  at  least  retaining  his  betrothed  virgin, 
deferring  marriage. — In  the  first  clause  of  v.  36,  the  Greek 
allows  this  more  general  statement  :  If  a  man  thinks  there 
may  be  disgraceful  conduct  in  the  case  of  his  virgin — leaving 
it  so  general  as  to  apply  to  misdemeanors  either  on  her  part 
or  on  his,  or  both. — The  last  clause  of  the  verse — "  Let 
them  marry" — is  very  indefinite,  so  that  it  may  apply, 
either  to  a  man  betrothed  (as  above),  or  to  a  father  per- 
mitting the  marriage  of  his  daughter  to  another. — v.  37 
applies  naturally  to  a  man  supporting  or  at  least  retaining 
his  betrothed  without  marriage  ;  but  v.  38  as  clearly  con- 
templates a  father  giving  his  daughter  in  marriage.— On 
the  whole,  it  seems  to  me  that  we  must  say — Either  these 
two  cases  were  not  clearly  distinguished  in  Paul's  mind  : 
or  the  delicacy  of  the  subject  induced  a  choice  of  words 
not  altogether  definite  as  they  come  to  us  ;  or  we  have  not 
precisely  the  words  he  used. — But  this  opinion  is  expressed 
modestly,  as  under  a  sense  of  extreme  difficulties. 

Of  course  it  is  assumed  that  betrothal  in  the  usage  of  the 
times  often  preceded  marriage  by  a  somewhat  protracted 
interval. 

39.  The  wife  is  bound  by  the  law  as  long  as  her  hus- 
band Hveth  ;  but  if  her  husband  be  dead,  she  is  at  liberty 
to  be  married  to  whom  she  will ;  only  in  the  Lord. 


222  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VII. 

40.  But  slie  Is  happier  if  slie  so  abide,  after  my  judg- 
ment :  and  I  think  also  that  I  have  the  Spirit  of  God. 

Obviously  Paul  permits  a  widow  to  marry  again — only 
let  it  be  "  in  the  Lord  ; " — if  a  Christian  herself,  only  to 
one  who  is  also  a  Christian.  Under  the  emergencies  then 
pressing  or  pending,  he  judges  that  the  unmarried  state 
would  be  the  more  happy. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  subject  of  eating  meat  that  has  been  offered  to  an 
idol  is  here  treated  as  a  question  of  conscience. 

1.  Kow  as  touching  things  offered  unto  idols,  we 
know  that  we  all  have  knowledge.  Knowledge  puffeth 
up,  but  charity  edifieth. 

2.  And  if  any  man  think  that  he  knoweth  anything, 
he  knoweth  nothing  yet  as  he  ought  to  know. 

3.  But  if  any  man  love  God,  the  same  is  known  of 
him. 

On  this  point  we  are  all  sure  that  we  have  knowledge. 
But  for  the  practical  working  of  this  matter,  it  is  entirely 
vital  that  we  have  love  also.  Knowledge  puffs  up ;  love 
Jjuilds  up,  solidly — and  makes  noble  characters.  Much 
self-conceit  proves  a  man  to  know  nothing  yet  as  he  ought 
to  know  ;  for  the  knowledge  that  is  without  love  is  value- 
less. If  a  man  truly  loves  G-od,  he  is  known  [and  approved 
also]  of  him.  According  to  a  common  Hebrew  idiom, 
'^knoiv"  here  carries  the  sense  of  being  approved — known 
favorably ;  known  in  the  sense  that  God  slioios  that  he 
knows  him. 

All  this  prepares  the  way  for  the  just  exposition  of  this 
question.  There  is  here  more  need  of  love  than  of  know- 
ledge— the  love  that  will  induce  a  Christian  to  shape  his 
course  for  his  Christian  neighbor's  good,  and  not  accord- 
ing to  knowledge  that  has  no  love  controlling  it. 

4.  As  concerning  therefore  the  eating  of  those  things 
that  are  offered  in  sacriiice  unto  idols,  we  know  that  an 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VIII.  223 

idol  is  nothing  in  the  world,  and  that  there  is  none  other 
God  but  one. 

5.  For  though  there  be  that  are  called  gods,  whether 
in  heaven  or  in  earth,  (as  there  be  gods  many,  and  lords 
many,) 

6.  But  to  us  there  is  hut  one  God,  the  Father,  of 
whom  are  all  things,  and  we  in  him ;  and  one  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  are  all  things,  and  we  by  him. 

AVe  all  know  full  well  that  an  idol  is  a  mere  nothing,  a 
simple  non-entity  ;  and  that  there  is  no  God  but  the  One 
Supreme.  True,  there  are  what  are  called  gods,  without 
number ;  but  we  recognize  only  the  One  Infinite  God,  of 
whom  as  the  source  of  all  existence  come  all  things  ;  and 
we  are  (not  i?i  Him,  but)  unto  [for]  him — (the  Greek  word 
being  not  en  but  eis).  One  Lord  Jesus  Christ  by  whom 
as  instrumental  Creator  are  all  things,  and  ourselves  made 
by  him. 

From  this  doctrine,  that  an  idol  is  a  mere  nothing,  it 
follows  that  meat  offered  to  such  an  idol  is  the  same  essen- 
tially after  as  before,  the  consecrating  of  meat  to  a  mere 
nothing  amounting  to  nothing. 

7.  Howbeit  there  is  not  in  every  man  that  know- 
ledge :  for  some  with  conscience  of  the  idol  unto  this 
hour  eat  it  as  a  thing  offered  unto  an  idol ;  and  their 
conscience  being  weak  is  defiled. 

8.  But  meat  commendeth  us  not  to  God :  for  neither, 
if  we  eat,  are  we  the  better ;  neither,  if  we  eat  not, 
are  we  the  worse. 

But  though  this  may  be  very  true  yet  all  men  do  not 
know  it. — In  the  clause  "  some  with  conscience  of  the 
idol,"  the  older  manuscripts  have  it,  not  "conscience" 
but  usage.  Some  men,  controlled  by  the  usage  or  habit  of 
thinking  it  to  be  something  real  eat  this  meat  as  if  the 
eating  involved  the  worship  of  an  idol ;  and  so,  their  con- 
science, being  ill-informed  ["  weak  "]  is  defiled.  Through 
their  ignorance  they  have  committed  sin. — Yet  (v.  8)  (he 
would  say)  bear  in  mind  that  this  sin  lies  strictly,  neither 
in  the  eating  nor  in  the  not  eating  ;  but  in  doing  what  in 
their  view  was  wrong.  For  the  eating  or  the  not  eating  of 
meat  cannot  of  itself  make  us  either  better  or  worse  before 
God. 


224.  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VIII. 

9.  But  take  heed  lest  by  any  means  this  liberty  of 
yours  become  a  stumbling  block  to  them  that  are  weak. 

10.  For  if  any  man  see  thee  which  hast  knowledge 
sit  at  meat  in  the  idol's  temple,  shall  not  the  conscience 
of  him  which  is  weak  be  emboldened  to  eat  those  things 
which  are  offered  to  idols : 

11.  And  through  thy  knowledge  shall  the  weak 
brother  perish,  for  whom  Christ  died  ? 

12.  But  when  ye  sin  so  against  the  brethren,  and 
wound  their  weak  conscience,  ye  sin  against  Christ. 

13.  Wherefore,  if  meat  make  my  brother  to  offend, 
I  will  eat  no  flesh  while  the  world  standeth,  lest  I  make 
my  brother  to  offend. 

If  a  man  of  weak  [ill-informed]  conscience,  who  hon- 
estly supposes  that  eating  idol-offered  meat  is  worship  of 
the  idol,  were  to  see  you  eating  such  meat  in  an  idol  tem- 
ple, and  should  thus  be  induced,  desj^ite  of  and  against  his 
own  conscience,  to  do  the  same  himself,  this  would  be  in 
him  real  idolatry,  and  might  ruin  his  soul.  Shall  thy  su- 
perior knowledge  become  thus  a  fatal  snare  to  thy  weak 
brother  for  whom  Christ  died  ? — Sinning  thus  against  a 
weak  brother,  is  sinning  against  Christ. 

With  the  moral  grandeur  of  the  noblest  self-denial  and 
self-sacrifice,  Paul  declares  his  principle  and  purpose  ; — 
that  if  eating  meat  would  cause  his  brother  to  stumble  and 
fall,  he  will  eat  no  more  meat  to  the  end  of  time.  No 
spirit  of  self-indulgence  should  tempt  him  to  imperil  the 
soul  of  his  Christian  brother. 

Paul  will  not  say — I  have  my  rights  and  privileges, 
from  the  enjoyment  of  which  no  man's  foolish  notions 
shall  debar  me  ;— will  not  say — The  man  ought  to  have 
known  better  than  to  stumble  in  that  senseless  way  ; — will 
not  plead  ; — "  What  have  I  to  do  with  another's  whims  ?" 
— Not  so,  in  Paul's  view,  does  love  for  the  souls  of  men 
plead  for  self-gratification  to  the  peril  of  weak  brethren. 

tOs 

CHAPTEPt  IX. 

This  chapter  throughout  is  Paul's  self-vindication 
against  the  slanders  and  detractions  of  certain  parties  in 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  IX.  225 

the  church,  who  decried  his  apostolic  authority,  and  who 
apparently  grudged  him  his  bread. — If  the  question  be 
raised — Who  were  those  parties  ?  We  must  answer  with 
no  reasonable  doubt — men  of  Jewish  antecedents  and  of 
Jewish  spirit.  We  may  infer  this  from  the  general  fact 
that  Paul's  personal  enemies  were  from  that  class,  at  least 
during  all  his  earlier  labors  ;  and  from  the  particular  facts 
evinced  here — that  they  conceded  privileges  to  other  apos- 
tles, to  the  brethren  of  the  Lord,  and  to  Peter,  which 
they  denied  to  Paul ;  and  also  from  the  circumstance  that 
Paul  reasoned  with  them  on  this  point  from  the  Mosaic 
law,  the  authority  of  which  they  must  have  recognized. 
(See  V.  9-13). 

1.  Am  I  not  an  apostle  ?  am  I  not  free  ?  have  I  not 
seen  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  ?  are  not  ye  my  work  in 
the  Lord  ? 

2.  If  I  be  not  an  apostle  unto  others,  yet  doubtless 
I  am  to  you :  for  the  seal  of  mine  apostleship  are  ye 
in  the  Lord. 

The  older  manuscript  authorities  reverse  the  order  of 
the  first  two  questions,  putting  first,  '"'Am  I  not  free  ?" — 
As  to  the  sense  of  this  word,  "free,"  it  cannot  be  the 
servitude  of  slavery  ;  but  must  be  his  independence  as  an 
apostle.  He  maintains  that  he  is  no  second-rate  apostle  ; 
fills  no  subordinate  sphere  under  control  of  higher  apos- 
tles ;  but  is  amenable  to  Jesus  Christ  only.  One  of  the 
slanders  against  him  seems  to  have  rested  on  these  circum- 
stances— that  he  was  not  one  of  the  original  twelve  ;  was 
not  taught  and  trained  by  Christ ;  and  therefore  must 
hold  a  very  subordinate  position  as  compared  with  the 
other  apostles. 

Further,  they  seem  to  have  denied  him  the  honor  of 
having  founded  that  church,  and  gathered  to  Christ  the 
converts  who  composed  it. — This  was  at  once,  false, 
mean  and  cruel. 

3.  Mine  answer  to  them  that  do  examine  me  is  this : 

4.  Have  we  not  power  to  eat  and  to  drink  ? 

5.  Have  we  not  power  to  lead  about  a  sister,  a 
wife,  as  well  as  other  apostles,  and  as  the  brethren  of 
the  Lord,  and  Cephas  ? 


226  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  IX. 

6.  Or  I  oiilj  and  Barnabas,  have  not  we  power  to 
forbear  working? 

7.  Who  goeth  a  warfare  any  time  at  his  own 
charges?  who  planteth  a  vineyard,  and  eateth  not  of 
the  f iniit  thereof  ?  or  who  f eedeth  a  flock,  and  eateth 
not  of  the  milk  of  the  flock  ? 

In  V.  3,  we  may  read — My  apology  or  defence  to  those 
who  judge  me— who  assume  to  sit  in  judgment  over  me. 

Have  Ave  not  "  power  " — in  the  more  precise  sense  of 
the  right,  the  prerogative  or  privilage,  if  we  so  choose. — 
The  prerogative  of  eating  and  drinking  at  your  expense^ 
i.  e.  the  right  not  merely  to  eat  in  order  to  live,  but  to  be 
su2:)ported  by  those  for  whom  we  labor. 

"'To  lead  about  a  sister,  a  wife,"  means,  a  Christian 
wife — a  wife  provided  she  be  a  Christian. — V.  5  assumes 
that  the  other  apostles_  including  Peter  and  the  brethren 
of  the  Lord  (of  whom  James  was  one)  were  married  men, 
and  had  their  wives  with  them  in  their  gospel  labors. — In 
V.  7,  Paul  reasons  from  the  analogy  of  other  avocations  in 
life.  The  soldier  who  gives  his  service  to  his  country 
does  not  board  himself,  but  expects  his  country  to  supply 
his  rations.  So  he  who  plants  and  cultivates  a  vineyard. 
The  common  sense  of  mankind  will  extend  this  principle 
to  him  who  labors  in  the  gospel. 

8.  Say  I  these  things  as  a  man?  or  saith  not  the  law 
the  same  also? 

9.  For  it  is  written  in  the  law  of  Moses,  Thon  shalt 
not  muzzle  the  mouth  of  the  ox  that  treadeth  out  the 
corn.     Doth  God  take  care  for  oxen  ? 

10.  Or  saith  he  it  altogether  for  our  sakes?  For 
our  sakes,  no  doubt,  this  is  written:  that  he  that  plough- 
eth  should  plough  in  hope  ;  and  that  he  that  thresheth 
in  hope  should  be  partaker  of  his  hojje. 

11.  If  we  have  sown  unto  you  spiritual  things,  is  it 
a  great  thing  if  we  shall  reap  your  carnal  things  ? 

12.  If  others  be  partakers  of  this  power  over  you, 
are  not  we  rather  ?  Nevertheless  we  have  not  used  this 
power ;  but  suffer  all  things,  lest  we  should  hinder  the 
gospel  of  Christ. 

Do  I  say  this  on  mere  human  authority  ?    Does  not 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  IX.  227 

the  law  of  God  teach  the  same  ? — See  this  law  through 
Moses  in  Deut.  25:  4,  quoted  by  Paul  iu  1  Tim.  5:  18  also; 
*'  Thou  shalt  not  muzzle  the  ox  while  treading  out  the  corn," 
— not  precisely  the  same  ox  who  does  this  service,  but  while 
he  is  doing  it.  To  muzzle  him  at  any  time  when  he  needs 
to  eat  would  be  bad  ;  to  muzzle  him  when  his  food  is  in 
sight,  is  still  worse. — Paul  seems  to  assume  that  God  gave 
this  law,  not  because  of  his  care  for  oxen  alone,  but  to  teach 
men  to  be  humane  and  just  even  to  brute  animals,  and  on 
a  still  broader  principle,  to  give  every  laborer  his  due 
reward.  Perhaps  he  meant  to  say  only  that  the  chief  rea- 
son for  the  law  was  not  the  Lord's  care  for  beasts,  but  for 
men  whose  moral  training  is  an  interest  indefinitely  more 
important  than  the  mere  food  of  oxen. — In  v.  11,  the  force 
of  the  argument  lies  in  the  obviously  greater  value  of  spir- 
itual things  than  of  carnal — the  spiritual  being  of  eternal 
consequence  and  measureless  value,  while  carnal  things  are 
at  best  short-lived  and  insignificant. — Is  it  then  a  great 
thing  for  you  to  pay  for  priceless  blessings  with  your  cheap 
and  perishable  dust  ? — If  you  allow  the  claims  of  other 
apostles  upon  you  for  bread,  will  you  deny  it  to  us  ?  Yet 
we  have  never  either  asserted  our  rights,  or  taken  the  least 
compensation  from  you  for  our  services  ;  but  have  cheer- 
fully suffered  all  privations  and  hardships,  lest  through 
your  niggardliness  we  might  prejudice  our  labors  in  the 
gospel. 

13.  Do  ye  not  know  that  they  which  minister  about 
holy  things  live  of  the  things  of  the  temj^le  ?  and  they 
which  wait  at  the  altar  are  partakers  with  the  altar  ? 

14.  Even  so  hath  the  Lord  ordained  that  they  which 
preach  the  gospel  should  live  of  the  gospel. 

The  rule  of  the  law  of  Moses  (ISTum.  18  ;  31,  and  Deut. 
18  ;  1,  etc.)  that  both  priests  and  Levites  should  subsist 
upon  the  offerings  of  the  people  at  the  temple  and  the 
altar  must  have  been  well  known  to  all  Jews,  and  ought 
to  have  been  entirely  conclusive  as  to  Paul's  claims. 

15.  But  I  have  used  none  of  these  things :  neither 
have  I  written  these  things,  that  it  should  be  so  done  unto 
me  :  for  it  were  better  for  me  to  die,  than  that  any  man 
should  make  my  glorying  void. 

16.  For  though  I  preach  the  gospel,  I  have  nothing 


228  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  IX. 

to  glory  of :  for  necessity  is  laid  upon  me ;  yea,  woe  is 
unto  me,  if  I  preacli  not  the  gospel ! 

lY.  For  if  I  do  this  thing  wilHngly,  I  have  a  reward: 
but  if  against  my  will,  a  dispensation  of  the  gospel  is 
committed  unto  me. 

18.  What  is  my  reward  then  ?  Verily  that,  when  I 
preach  the  gospel,  I  may  make  the  gospel  of  Christ  with- 
out charge,  that  I  abuse  not  my  power  in  the  gospel. 

Paul  had  taken  from  them  no  corapensation  for  his  la- 
bors, nor  did  he  say  these  things  for  the  sake  of  it  there- 
after ;  for  he  would  sooner  die  than  be  precluded  from 
bearing  this  testimony  to  his  self-sacrifice  and  to  his  labor 
upon  tents  for  his  living.  Elsewhere  he  gives  his  reasons 
for  this  conduct  toward  them;  viz.,  their  jealousy,  sus- 
picion and  prejudice  against  him  were  so  intense  and  un- 
reasonable that  he  knew  they  would  take  every  advantage 
of  it  to  malign  his  name  and  to  weaken  if  not  destroy  his 
moral  power  among  them.  They  were  too  mean  to  be  al- 
lowed to  contribute  to  his  support ! — Not  all  of  them  (we 
may  hope)  but  so  many  that  prudence  demanded  this 
policy. 

I  preach  the  gospel  here  at  Corinth  (Paul  would  say) 
under  a  resistless  conviction  that  God  sends  me  and  holds 
me  to  it.  If  I  do  it  cheerfully,  God  rewards  me  ;  if  I  do 
it  reluctantly,  still  the  burden  is  on  me  and  I  have  no  al- 
ternative but  to  bear  it  and  fulfil  my  trust. 

By  making  the  gospel  without  charge  to  you,  I  do  not 
allow  my  rights  in  tliis  matter  to  prejudice  the  success  of 
my  labors. 

19.  For  though  I  be  free  from  all  men,  yet  have  I 
made  myself  servant  unto  all,  that  I  might  gain  the 
more. 

20.  And  unto  the  Jews  I  became  as  a  Jew,  that  I 
might  gain  the  Jews  ;  to  them  that  are  under  the  law, 
as  under  the  law,  that  I  might  gain  them  that  are  under 
the  law ; 

21.  To  them  that  are  without  law,  as  without  law, 
(l3eing  not  without  law  to  God,  but  under  the  law  to 
Christ,)  that  I  might  gain  them  that  are  without  law. 

22.  To  the  weak  became  I  as  weak,  that  I  might  gain 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  IX.  229 

the  weak :  I  am  made  all  things  to  all  men^  that  I  might 
bj  all  means  save  some. 

23.  And  this  I  do  for  the  gospel's  sake,  that  I  might 
be  partaker  thereof  with  you. 

The  same  principle  holds  in  all  these  cases.  Free  as 
to  all  men,  he  yet  became  the  humble  servant  of  all  that  he 
might  gain  the  more.  In  particular, — though  under  no 
personal  obligation  to  the  people  of  Corinth,  he  yet  laid  out 
his  best  strength  bo  serve  them  for  no  consideration  of  pay 
from  them.  To  Jews,  he  made  every  concession  possibly 
consistent  for  him  to  make  that  he  might  gain  the  Jews. 
For  the  sake  of  those  under  law,  he  conformed  to  their 
usages  as  far  as  possible  in  order  to  gain  them.  To  Gentiles 
not  under  law,  he  pursued  the  same  policy  for  the  same 
purpose,  and  all  this  for  the  gospel's  sake  that  he  might 
share  with  them  its  blessed  fruits. 

Paul  declares  that  no  personal  considerations  should 
detain  him  from  conforming  himself  in  all  things  where  he 
wisely  and  conscientiously  could,  to  the  prejudices  and 
usages  of  men  that  he  might  reach  them  with  gospel  truth 
and  salvation.  All  the  particular  details  of  this  conform- 
ing to  men  of  diverse  tastes  and  ways  he  has  not  specified. 
It  was  enough  to  declare  his  principles  of  action  and  appeal 
to  their  personal  knowledge  as  to  the  facts. 

24:.  Know  ye  not  that  they  which  run  in  a  race  run 
all,  but  one  receiveth  the  prize  ?  So  run,  that  ye  may 
obtain. 

25.  And  every  man  that  striveth  for  the  mastery  is 
temperate  in  all  things.  Kow  they  do  it  to  obtain  a  cor- 
ruptible crown ;  but  we  an  incorruptible. 

26.  I  therefore  so  run,  not  as  uncertainly ;  so  fight  I, 
not  as  one  that  beateth  the  air : 

27.  But  I  keep  under  my  body,  and  bring  it  into 
subjection:  lest  that  by  any  means,  when  I  have 
preached  to  others,  I  myself  should  be  a  castaway. 

Such  a  life  might  well  be  compared  to  running  a  race 
or  striving  for  the  mastery  in  the  ancient  games  so  well 
known  at  Corinth.  They  knew  very  well  that  many  ran 
in  one  competitive  race  ;  yet  only  one  obtained  the  crown, 
and  he,  the  man  who  trained  himself  most  rigidly  and  ran 


230  1  CORINTHIANS.-CHAP.  IX, 

with  most  intense  and  desperate  endeavor.  Yet  they  have 
before  them  only  a  perishable  chaplet ;  we,  a  crown  immor- 
tal, imperishable.  So  therefore  do  I  run — not  as  one  who 
has  no  goal — no  definite  aim  before  him  and  no  crown  to 
win,  but  skips  round  as  if  for  mere  amusement. — So  I  play 
the  boxer — not  beating  the  air,  but  giving  solid  blows  for 
best  effect.  '"'Beating  the  air"  was  a  proverbial  expres- 
sion to  signify  not  work  but  play. — Paul's  word  for  "  keep 
my  body  under"  signifies  that  he  put  in  solid  blows  in  real 
earnest,  and  did  not  spare  the  flesh.  In  regard  to  sensual 
indulgence  of  appetite  he  made  his  body,  his  very  humble 
servant,  holding  it  in  with  close  rein  ;  and  he  did  this,  lest 
after  having  preached  to  others,  he  should  lose  his  own  soul  ! 
— Yet  this  was  not  asceticism  ;  was  not  crucifying  the 
flesh  for  the  merit  or  the  vain  glory  of  it ;  but  it  was  keep- 
ing fleshly  appetite  in  close  subjection  to  enlightened  rea- 
son and  conscience  and  to  the  claims  of  God.  It  must  not 
stand  in  the  way  of  his  supreme  devotion  of  his  utmost 
powers  to  his  gospel  work  and  to  every  service  assigned 
him  by  his  Great  Master. 


CHAPTER    X. 

For  the  sake  of  its  great  lessons  of  moral  admonition 
and  instruction,  Paul  brings  before  his  readers  the  case  of 
ancient  Israel,  baptized  unto  Moses  (v.  1,  2) ;  all  eating 
the  same  manna  and  drinking  from  the  same  smitten  rock 
(v.  3,  4)  ;  yet  many  of  them  provoking  God  and  overthrown 
in  the  wilderness  (v.  5).  Examples  of  warning  to  us 
against  idolatry,  fornication,  tempting  Christ  and  mur- 
muring— all  for  our  admonition  (v.  6-12).  God  who  suf- 
fers temptation  to  befall  us  provides  in  his  providence  for 
our  escape  and  by  his  grace  for  our  bearing  it  (v.  13) ; 
against  participating  in  idol-worship  (v.  14, 15)  ;  illustrated 
by  our  communion  at  the  Lord's  table  and  by  Israel  eating 
of  his  altar  (v.  16-18) ;  not  that  an  idol  is  anything  ;  really 
idol-worship  is  a  sacrifice  to  devils,  with  whom  Christian 
men  should  have  no  communion  (v.  19-22).  The  law  of 
conscience  in  this  thing  (v.  23-30)  ;  the  broad  principle  of 
doing  all  for  the  glory  of  God  (v.  31-33). 


1  CORINTHIANS. -CHAP.  X.  231 

1.  Moreover,  brethren,  I  would  not  tliat  ye  should  be 
ignorant,  how  that  all  our  fathers  were  under  the  cloud, 
and  all  passed  throus^h  the  sea : 

2.  And  were  all  Ibaptized  unto  Moses  in  the  cloud  and 
in  the  sea ; 

"  I  would  not  have  you  ignorant "  calls  these  facts  to 
their  very  special  attention. — The  first  point  is  the  miracu- 
lous passage  of  the  Ked  Sea  between  the  lofty  walls  of 
its  waters  on  each  side,  and  overshadowed  from  behind 
with  the  Lord's  pillar  of  cloud  and  fire.  These  scenes  are 
here  for  their  significance  as  God's  endorsement  of  Moses 
and  his  solemn  pledging  of  the  people  to  accept  and  follow 
him  as  their  divinely  appointed  Leader.  Baptism  is  here 
(be  it  specially  noted),  not  in  its  ritual,  external  foi-m,  but 
in  its  spiritual  significance.  It  has  sometimes  happened 
that  men  specially  anxious  to  get  scriptural  authority  for 
one  or  the  other  mode  of  baptism,  have  sought  it  here  ; — 
some  finding  immersion  in  this  going  down  into  the  sea  and 
coming  out  of  it  :  others,  finding,  as  it  has  seemed  to  them, 
the  mode  of  sprinkling  in  the  affusion  from  the  mist  of  the 
sea,  but  more  in  the  drippings  from  the  cloud. — The  former 
are  prone  to  overlook  the  point  that  Egypt's  hosts  and  not 
Israel's  received  the  immersion  in  the  Eed  Sea  waters; 
while  the  latter  seem  equally  to  have  overlooked  the  circum- 
stance that  this  was  not  a  rain-cloud,  but  a  pillar  of  cloud- 
form  which  enshrined  the  manifested  presence  of  Jehovah — 
a  wall  of  blackness  as  it  faced  toward  Egypt,  but  a  radiance  of 
glory  as  it  shone  upon  God's  covenant  people  ; — in  all  which 
there  could  have  been  no  allusion  to  the  form  of  baptism. 
Perhaps  both  sides  in  this  controversy  need  to  be  reminded 
that  Paul's  allusions  to  baptism  are  usually  peculiar  in  this 
one  respect— that  they  make  prominent  its  spiritual  signi- 
ficance, and  not  its  ritual  external  form.  Indeed  we  may 
say  they  make  every  thing  of  the  former  and  nothing  of  the 
latter. — This  will  seem  strange  if  not  even  unaccountable 
to  those  who  are  accustomed  to  exalt  the  form  of  the  in- 
stitution ;  but  Paul's  thought  and  heart  Avere  obviously  on 
the  spirit  and  not  the  form. 

Here  Paul  thinks  of  baptism  into  a  name  [or  a  person] 
as  expressing  a  binding,  sacred  obligation  of  allegiance  to 
that  name  as  a  recognized  Leader.  When  the  God  of  Israel 
would  inaugurate  Moses  as  the  Leader  of  his  covenant  peo- 


232  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  X. 

pie  by  his  own  sublime  endorsement,  and  would  lay  his  peo- 
13le  under  supreme  obligation  to  receive  and  follow  him  as 
such,  he  performed  this  act  in  the  most  public  manner  be- 
fore all  Egypt  and  indeed  before  all  the  earth,  by  giving 
that  rod  in  his  hand  a  glorious  miracle-working  power; — 
then  by  placing  him  before  the  eyes  of  Israel  and  command- 
ing him — '-'Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel  that  they  go 
forioard ;  lift  thou  up  thy  rod  and  stretch  out  thy  hand 
over  the  sea  and  divide  it,  and  the  children  of  Israel  shall 
go  on  dry  ground  through  the  midst  of  the  sea"  (Ex.  14: 
15,  16). — This  stupendous  scene,  coupled  with  the  pillar 
of  cloud  and  of  fire,  constituted  the  baptism  here  referred 
to — a  baptism  which  bound  the  nation  to  accept  Moses  as 
God's  chosen  Leader  of  his  peojjle.  This  and  this  only  is 
what  baptism  means  in  this  passage. 

The  manna-bread  and  the  rock-waters  are  here  for  the 
same  purpose,  additional  facts  mightily  endorsing  Moses 
as  God's  servant,  and  binding  the  nation  to  accept  and  fol- 
low him  as  such  and  God  as  their  supreme  Lord  and  King. 

3.  And  did  all  eat  the  same  spiritual  meat. 

4.  And  did  all  drink  the  same  spiritual  drink  ;  for  they 
drank  of  that  spiritual  Hock  that  followed  them :  and 
that  Rock  was  Christ. 

Beyond  question  this  spiritual  meat  [food]  w^as  the 
manna — "bread  from  heaven,"  as  the  Psalmist  has  it  (Ps. 
105:  40  and  78:  24,  25),  and  called  "spiritual"  with  refer- 
ence to  its  miraculous  and  heavenly  origin.  So  also  the 
"spiritual  drink  "  was  in  itself  only  water,  but  is  said  here 
to  be  '•  spiritual"  because  brought  forth  by  miracle  from  the 
smitten  rock.  Its  waters,  for  abundance,  supplied  a  thirsty 
nation,  and,  for  duration  of  supply,  seem  to  have  met  their 
wants  at  least  so  long  as  they  remained  in  that  part  of  the 
wilderness. — Noticeably  the  imperfect  tense  used  by  Paul 
in  the  second  clause  of  v.  4  (•'  for  they  dranJc''')  clearly  ex- 
presses long  continued  action,  and  therefore  fully  assumes 
the  fact  of  supply  for  a  long  time.  Fitly  Paul  thinks  of 
this  rock-supply  of  living  water  as  representing  Christ — in 
his  own  phrase  it '' ivas  CImst."  'No  living  fountain  of 
waters  in  the  desert  can  be  richer  than  Christ  to  a  world 
perishing  with  thirst  for  the  waters  of  salvation. 

Before  we  follow  out  in  detail  this  line  of  facts,  let  a 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  X.  233 

word  be  said  upon  Paul's  purposed  antithesis  between  the 
"  all "  five  times  repeated  (in  v.  1-4)  on  the  one  side,  and 
the  great  majority  ["many  of  them"  v.  5.]  on  the  other. 
"  All  our  fathers  were  under  the  cloud ;  ^' "  all  passed 
through  the  sea  ;  "  "  all  were  baptized  unto  Moses  ;  "  "  all 
did  eat;"  "all  did  drink;"  but  over  against  this,  the 
greater  part — most  of  them — fell  under  God's  sore  displeas- 
ure and  perished  !  All  saw  the  miracles ;  all  had  the  re- 
sistless testimony  of  their  senses  to  a  present  God,  their 
glorious  Benefactor  ; — but  most  of  them  were  unblessed  by 
any  or  even  all  these  agencies. — Tliere  are  great  lessons  in 
these  facts.  Men  are  not  saved  by  ritualities  ;  nor  by  op- 
portunities ;  nor  by  their  testimonies  for  God  ;  nor  are  they 
saved  as  nations  in  the  mass,  but  only  as  individuals,  on 
the  condition  of  their  own  personal  faith  and  obedience. — 
It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  Paul  is  here  speaking  to 
Jews — "  our  fathers  ;  "  and  felt  therefore  the  importance  of 
warning  them  against  the  great  and  fatal  mistake  of  sup- 
posing that  their  nation  was  to  be  saved  e>i  masse,  nationally 
— because  they  were  the  seed  of  Abraham  and  heirs  of 
all  God's  blessings  by  virtue  of  God's  covenant  with  him. 

5.  But  with  many  of  tliem  God  was  not  well  pleased : 
for  they  were  overthrown  in  the  wilderness. 

6.  Now  these  things  were  our  examples,  to  the  intent 
we  should  not  lust  after  evil  things,  as  they  also  lusted. 

7.  JSTeither  be  ye  idolaters,  as  were  some  of  them ;  as 
it  is  written,  The  people  sat  down  to  eat  and  drink,  and 
rose  up  to  play. 

8.  ]!»reither  let  us  commit  fornication,  as  some  of  them 
committed,  and  fell  in  one  day  three  and  twenty  thou- 
sand. 

9.  Neither  let  us  tempt  Christ  as  some  of  them  also 
tempted,  and  were  destroyed  of  serj)ents. 

10.  Neither  murmur  ye,  as  some  of  them  also  mur- 
mured, and  were  destroyed  of  the  destroyer. 

"  God  was  not  well  pleased  " — aims  to  express  very  mildly 
the  appalling  truth  that  God  was  exceedingly  displeased,  and 
therefore  overthrew  them  by  thousands  in  the  wilderness. 
The  record  is  sad  but  most  instructive — teaching  the  very 
lesson  which  Paul  here  indicates — not  to  lust  after  evil 
things  as  they  did — said  apparently  with  reference  to  their 


234  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  X. 

mumuring  against  Moses  and  the  manna,  and  lustfully 
sighing  for  the  flesh-pots  of  Egypt  (Num.  11.) — Nest  is  the 
warning  against  idolatry  (always  timely  at  Corinth),  drawn 
from  the  case  of  the  golden  calf,  when  "the  jDeople  sat 
down  to  eat  and  drink,  and  rose  up  to  revel,  shout  and 
dance, in  imitation  of  the  orgies  of  idol- worshipping  heathen. 
Ex,  33  gives  this  sad  and  terrible  lesson. — Next  is  the  warn- 
ing against  fornication,  drawn  from  another  page  of  this 
history  of  Israel,  under  social  temptation  from  the  licen- 
tious daughters  of  Moab  (Num.  25:).  The  number  who  fell 
before  the  plague  of  that  awful  day,  Paul  puts  at  23,000. — 
The  case  referred  to  in  v.  9,  is  that  recorded  Num.  21:  4-9, 
which  occurred  as  the  people  were  compassing  the  land  of 
Edom,  and  ''their  soul  was  much  discouraged  because 
of  the  way." — "Whereas  our  authorized  version  has  it — 
"tempted  Christ,"  the  older  manuscripts  [S.  and  V.]  give 
it — "tempted  the  Lord;"  and  (A.  the  Alexandrian) 
'•'tempted  God."  The  history  in  Numbers  has  it — "spake 
against  God  and  against  Moses  ;"  and  the  people  confess — 
"  We  have  spoken  against  the  Lord." — Such  variations 
show  how  readily  these  divine  names  are  interchanged. — 
For  their  sin  "the  Lord  sent  among  the  people  fiery  ser- 
pents, and  much  people  died." — The  murmuring  (v.  10), 
was  that  upon  the  report  of  the  spies  (Num.  14).  The 
destruction  sent  upon  the  nation  for  this  sin  was  peculiar 
in  this  one  respect,  that  it  was  not  executed  suddenly  and 
followed  soon  by  respite,  but  its  threatened  judgments  fell 
upon  all  the  adult  men  (over  twenty  3^ears  of  age)  except 
only  Caleb  and  Joshua,  and  doomed  them  to  fall  in  their 
long  protracted  wanderings  of  thirty  eight  years  in  the 
wilderness,  so  that  not  a  man  of  them  should  enter  the 
promised  land.  It  was  a  terrible  visitation — those  early 
deaths,  in  swift  and  fearful  succession,  sweeping  men  down 
in  the  flower  of  their  days,  and  leaving  only  those  two  men 
of  patriarchal  age,  out  of  all  the  tribes,  surviving  to  cross 
the  Jordan. — So  God  remembered  against  the  nation  this 
awful  sin  of  murmuring  unbelief  !  The  sadness  of  this 
great  and  long-protracted  judgment  passes  down  the  ages 
in  that  dirge  song  of  Moses  (Ps.  90). 

11.  Kow  all  these  tilings  happened  unto  them  for 
ensamples ;  and  they  are  written  for  our  admonition, 
upon  whom  the  ends  of  the  world  are  come. 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  X,  235 

12.  "Wherefore  let  liim  tliat  thinketli  he  standeth 
take  heed  lest  he  fall. 

These  visitations  of  righteous  judgment  befel  them  as 
examples  of  warning — as  said  here,  "happened  to  them 
typically — but  were  put  on  record  (Paul  said)  for  the  ad- 
monition of  ourselves  upon  whom  the  two  ends  of  the  ages 
have  met.  This  is  obviously  the  sense  of  these  words  of 
Paul.  Their  explanation  turns  upon  the  usage  of  the  old 
prophets  who  call  the  period  before  Christ  the  present  age, 
and  the  period  after  Christ,  the  future  or  the  coming  age, 
or  (sometimes)  "  the  latter  or  last  days."  The  two  ends  of 
these  ages — the  last  end  of  the  first  and  the  first  end  of  the 
second,  met  upon  the  men  of  Paul's  generation. 

The  one  comprehensive  point  of  all  these  admonitions 
is  put  here  ;  viz.  against  self-conceit  and  presumption. 
Let  him  who  thinketh  himself  to  be  standing  in  all  safety 
take  heed  lest  he  fall.  Such  presumption  is  in  itself  su- 
premely perilous.  Throwing  men  off  their  guard,  it  leaves 
them  exposed  to  any  and  every  form  of  assault;  and  Satan 
is  never  slow  to  seize  his  opportunity. 

13.  There  hath  no  temptation  taken  you  but  such  as 
is  common  to  man :  but  God  is  faithful,  who  will  not 
suffer  you  to  be  tempted  above  that  ye  are  able ;  but 
will  with  the  temptation  also  make  a  way  to  escape,  that 
ye  may  be  able  to  bear  it. 

The  line  of  connecting  thought  here  should  be  noticed 
— viz.  on  this  wise  :  Do  not  suppose  that  temptation  is 
about  to  befal  you  with  unprecedented  frequency  and  super- 
human, resistless  force  ;  not  so.  Thus  far  no  temptation 
has  befallen  you  other  than  human  ;  and  moreover,  God  is 
faithful  to  all  his  promises  of  help,  and  will  graduate  the 
temptation  to  your  moral  power  of  resistance  ;  and  will, 
moreover,  provide  in  his  providence  a  way  of  escape — of 
egress  out  of  your  straits,  so  that  ye  shall  still  come  off 
victorious. — Obviously  this  verse  gives  us  the  doctrine  of 
Paul  as  to  the  principles  or  laws  of  temptation  as  permitted 
and  administered  in  this  world  toward  God's  people.  Only 
so  much  as  (with  watchfulness  and  prayer)  they  can  bear  ; 
never  more,  or  oftener  ;  always  for  the  purpose  of  increas- 
ing your  moral  strength,  for  the  results  of  wholesome  dis- 
cipline, and  for  its  precious  fruits  of  maturer  Christian 


236  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  X. 

experience  in  fortitude  and  trust. — The  comforting  truth  is 
that  the  whole  administration  of  it  is  in  the  hands  of  Him 
who  has  called  us  unto  himself  and  has  promised  to  keep 
us  through  his  grace  unto  the  end. 

It  is  never  becoming  that  Christians  should  make  temp- 
tation for  themselves  gratuitously,  or  defy  it  vain-gloriously; 
but  they  may  well  accept  without  a  murmur  or  a  fear  what- 
ever God  may  send,  reposing  their  faith  for  help  on  such 
promises  as  we  have  here.  Then  their  experiences  of  help 
in  the  hour  of  need  will  both  refresh  them  from  the  fa- 
tigues of  conflict  and  gird  them  anew  for  other  victories. 

14.  Wherefore,  my  dearly  beloved,  flee  from  idol- 
atry. 

15.  I  speak  as  to  wise  men  ;  judge  ye  what  I  say. 

16.  The  cup  of  blessing  which  we  bless,  is  it  not  the 
communion  of  the  blood  of  Christ  ?  The  bread  which 
we  break,  is  it  not  the  communion  of  the  body  of 
Christ? 

17.  For  we  leing  many  are  one  bread  and  one  body : 
for  we  are  all  partakers  of  that  one  bread. 

18.  Behold  Israel  after  the  flesh;  are  not  they  wliicli 
eat  of  the  sacrifices  partakers  of  the  altar  ? 

The  subject  of  idolatry  involved  nice  points  and  re- 
quired thoughtful,  sensible  discriminations.  So  Paul  sug- 
gests in  the  outset. — On  the  one  side,  to  allow  themselves 
to  commune  with  idolaters  in  their  feasts  within  their 
temples  would  involve  them  in  great  sin  ;  for  does  not  the 
communion  at  the  Lord's  table  bring  all  Christians  into 
closest  fellowship  with  Christ  ?  Also  under  the  old  temple 
worship,  did  not  all  who  ate  from  the  same  sacrifice  be- 
come partakers  of  the  common  altar  and  so  participate  in 
the  worship  of  Israel's  God  ?  These  cases  for  illustration 
are  given  to  show  the  real  significance  of  partaking  at  the 
feasts  in  honor  of  heathen  idols. 

19.  "What  say  I  then  ?  that  the  idol  is  any  thing,  or 
that  which  is  offered  in  sacrifice  to  idols  is  anything? 

20.  But  I  say  that  tlie  things  which  the  Gentiles 
sacrifice,  they  sacrifice  to  devils,  and  not  to  God ;  and 
I  would  not  that  ye  should  have  fellowship  with  devils. 

21.  Ye  cannot  drink  the  cup  of  the  Lord,  and  the  cup 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  X.  237 

of  devils :  ye  cannot  be  partakers  of  the  Lord's  table,  and 
of  the  table  of  devils. 

22.  Do  we  provoke  the  Lord  to  jealousy?  are  we 
stronger  than  he  ? 

Here  ye  will  need  sharp  and  clear  discrimination. — 
Does  my  doctrine  of  non-communion  with  idol- worshippers 
imply  that  an  idol  is  a  real  power,  a  very  god  ?  By  no 
means.  Or,  that  what  is  offered  to  an  idol  becomes  in- 
trinsically anything  else  than  it  was  before  ?  Not  at  all. 
But  the  fact  is  that  the  Gentiles  who  suppose  themselves 
to  be  sacrificing  to  their  idoJ  are  really  sacrificing  to  devils 
and  not  to  God.  They  honor  the  devil  and  not  God.  The 
devil  is  the  only  power  behind  the  face  of  the  idol-image. 
All  else — the  carved  wood  or  the  molten  silver — is  absolutely 
nothing. — Now  I  would  not  have  you  desire  the  cup  of 
devils  or  partake  at  the  table  of  devils.  It  would  be  infi- 
nite folly  to  provoke  Almighty  God  to  wrath  by  such  com- 
munion with  devils. 

23.  All  things  are  lawful  for  me,  but  all  things  are 
not  expedient:  all  things  are  lawful  for  me,  but  all 
things  edify  not. 

24.  Let  no  man  seek  his  own,  but  every  man  anoth- 
er's wealth. 

25.  Whatsoever  is  sold  in  the  shambles,  that  eat, 
asking  no  question  for  conscience  sake : 

26.  For  the  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  the  fulness 
thereof. 

27.  If  any  of  them  that  believe  not  bid  you  to  a  feast, 
and  ye  be  disposed  to  go :  whatsoever  is  set  before  you, 
eat,  asking  no  question  for  conscience'  sake. 

28.  But  if  any  man  say  unto  you.  This  is  offered  in 
sacrifice  unto  idols,  eat  not  for  his  sake  that  shewed  it, 
and  for  conscience'  sake :  for  the  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and 
the  fulness  thereof : 

29.  Conscience,  I  say,  not  thine  own,  but  of  the 
other :  for  why  is  my  liberty  judged  of  another  man^s 
conscience  ? 

30.  For  if  I  by  grace  be  a  partaker,  why  am  I  evil 
spoken  of  for  that  for  which  I  give  thanks  ? 

Here  comes  up  a  new  aspect  of  this  matter — viz.,  not 
11 


238  1  CORINTHIANS,— CHAP.  X. 

the  sitting  at  table  with  idol-worshippers  in  their  temple  ; 
but  the  eating  or  not  eating  of  meat  once  presented  before 
the  idol,  but  subsequently  sold  in  the  public  market.  In 
this  case  the  fact  of  its  having  been  once  offered  before  an 
idol  might  or  might  not  be  known. 

Here  Paul  lays  down  his  doctrine  as  to  this  case. — First, 
if  you  go  into  the  market  you  need  ask  no  questions  for  the 
sake  of  your  own  conscience.  The  meat  you  see  there  is 
real  meat — not  made  anything  else  than  meat  by  any  magic 
change  wrought  upon  it  in  the  idol  temple.  The  earth  is 
the  Lord's,  and  this  meat  is  of  his  making.  Eat  it  there- 
fore with  no  trouble  of  conscience  on  your  own  account. — 
But  if  your  heathen  neighbor  say  to  you — '*'  This  meat  is 
offered  in  sacrifice  to  idols :  I  am  about  to  eat  of  it  in 
honor  of  my  idol  : — "Will  you  sit  by  and  partake  with 
me  ?" — Then  you  must  refuse  most  decidedly — not  because 
of  your  own  conscience,  bat  because  of  his. 

In  V.  23,  Paul  puts  the  doctrine  in  a  very  general  form. 
Things  may  be  entirely  lawful  for  me  which  yet  are  not 
expedient  because  they  may  offend  another  man's  con- 
science. They  may  be  harmless  to  me  and  yet  injurious 
to  others — in  which  case  I  must  deny  myself  rather  than 
bring  moral  evil  upon  my  neighbor. — In  v.  24,  the  word 
"wealth"  in  the  sense  here,  is  obsolete.  It  were  better  to 
put  in  no  word  there  than  this,  reading  it — "  Let  no  man 
seek  his  own,  but  every  man  another's."  Then  whatever 
special  sense  you  put  upon  ''  his  own,"  you  put  also  upon 
"another's" — which  is  Paul's  meaning.  Not  his  own 
comfort,  but  another's  comfort ;  not  his  own  interest,  but 
another's  interest,  etc. 

31.  "Whether  therefore  ye  eat  or  drink,  or  whatsoever 
ye  do,  do  all  to  the  2:lory  of  God. 

32.  Give  none  offence,  neither  to  the  Jews,  nor  to  the 
Gentiles,  nor  to  the  church  of  God  : 

33.  Even  as  I  please  all  men  in  all  things,  not  seek- 
ing mine  own  profit,  but  the  ])rofit  of  many,  that  they 
may  be  saved. 

Here  the  doctrine  crystallizes  into  its  most  comprehen- 
sive form.  Let  all  your  eating,  all  your  drinking,  all  your 
doings  of  whatsoever  sort,  be  for  the  glory  of  God.  Have 
your  eye  wholly  and  only  upon  pleasing  God  and  doing  his 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  X.  239 

will ;  and  if  the  deed  bear  directly  upon  fellow-men,  let  it 
be  to  their  real  welfare,  "  serving  your  generation  accord- 
ing to  the  will  of  God." — Giving  no  offence — no  occasion 
of  stumbling — to  any  man,  Jew  or  Gentile,  and  by  no 
means  to  the  church  of  God.  Such  is  my  doctrine,  and 
such  is  my  life.  I  please  not  myself,  but  seek  the  spiritual 
good  of  all  men  that  they  may  be  saved. — A  pure  and 
blessed  life,  sublime  in  its  moral  grandeur,  fit  model  for 
imitation  in  every  age. 


-lOs- 


CHAPTER    XI. 

The  general  theme  of  this  chapter  is  one — the  proprie- 
ties of  church  life,  specially  in  their  Christian  assemblies  ; 
yet  in  two  parts — the  first  (vs.  1-lG)  being  more  specifically 
church  manners — things  of  etiquette — e.  g.,  as  to  covering 
or  not  covering  the  head  : — the  second  part  (vs.  17-34:)  of 
more  grave  importance — the  proper  method  in  observance 
of  the  love-feast  and  the  Lord's  Supper. 

1.  Be  ye  followers  of  me,  even  as  I  also  am  of  Christ. 

2.  JS'ow  I  praise  you,  brethren,  that  ye  remember 
me  in  all  things,  and  keej)  the  ordinances,  as  I  delivered 
them  to  you. 

V.  1.  ought  to  have  been  put  at  the  close  of  Chapter  10, 
where  in  thought  it  belongs. — "  Even  as,"  I  take  to  mean 
here — not  precisely — so  far  as  I  follow  Christ,  but  rather 
inasmuch  as  I  follow  Christ,  and  therefore  present  before 
you  a  paljiable,  potent  example  of  the  life  ye  should  live. 
He  assumes  that  he  himself  follows  Christ. — V.  2  is  com- 
plimentary for  the  sake  of  conciliating,  to  prepare  the  way 
for  the  exceptions  he  was  obliged  to  make.  In  fact  they 
had  not  kept  quite  fully  **  the  traditions"  Gr.  {i.  e.,  in- 
structions) which  he  had  given.  Paul's  word  has  a  broader 
significance  than  our  "ordinances,"  used  for  baptism  and 
the  supper. 

3.  But  I  would  have  you  know,  that  the  head  of 
every  man  is  Christ ;  and  the  head  of  the  woman  is  the 
man ;  and  the  head  of  Christ  is  God. 


240  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XL 

4.  Every  man  praying  or  prophesy ing,  having  his 
head  covered,  dishonoreth  his  head, 

5.  But  every  woman  that  prayeth  or  prophesieth 
with  her  head  uncovered  dishonoreth  her  head :  for  that 
is  even  all  one  as  if  she  were  shaven. 

6.  For  if  the  woman  be  not  covered,  let  her  also  be 
shorn :  but  if  it  be  a  shame  for  a  woman  to  be  shorn  or 
shaven,  let  her  be  covered. 

7.  For  a  man  indeed  ought  not  to  cover  his  head, 
forasmuch  as  he  is  the  image  and  glory  of  God :  but  the 
woman  is  the  glory  of  the  man. 

8.  For  the  man  is  not  of  the  woman ;  but  the  woman 
of  the  man, 

9.  ^Neither  was  tlie  man  created  for  the  woman ;  but 
the  woman  for  the  man. 

These  gradations  of  dignity  on  the  ascending  scale — 
woman;  man;  Christ;  God — Paul  not  infrequently  brings 
to  view  (e.  g.  1  Cor.  3.:  21-23 — apostles;  the  church; 
Christ ;  God).  This  gradation  is  the  ultimate  ground  or 
principle  on  which  church  etiquette  rests. 

The  special  difficulty  of  the  passage  lies  in  applying  the 
same  principle  or  law  as  the  ground  for  man's  uncovering 
his  head,  and  for  woman's  covering  hers,  Man  in  prayer 
uncovers  his  head  in  deference  to  God,  his  superior.  Wo- 
man praying  or  prophesying  covers  hers  in  deference  to 
man,  her  superior.  Can  this  be  precisely  the  logic  of  Paul  ? 
— Is  not  the  law  of  nature  this  rather  : — that  woman  cov- 
ers her  head  as  an  expression  of  modesty  and  as  a  protest 
against  vain  display  ? 

In  the  case  of  woman  Paul  puts  long  hair  and  the  veil 
or  other  head-covering  on  the  same  footing,  and  finds  the 
propriety  of  the  usage  in  her  relations,  not  to  God  but  to 
man, — In  v.  7,  his  doctrine  seems  to  be  that  man  is  the 
best  and  highest  expression  of  the  divine  image  ;  and  anal- 
ogously, that  woman  is  the  best  expression  or  manifestation 
of  man's  glory.  For  (v.  8)  man  was  not  produced  origin- 
ally from  the  woman  ;  but,  according  to  the  Scripture, 
woman  was  from  man  (Gen.  2  :  21-23),  Neither  (v.  9) 
was  the  man  created  for  the  woman,  but  the  woman  for 
the  man — because  no  helpmeet  for  him  was  found  among 
all  the  orders  of  created  beings  (Gen.  2  :  18-23), 


1  CORmTHIAXS.— CHAP.  XI.  241 

10.  For  this  cause  oiiglit  tlie  woman  to  have  power 
on  her  head  because  of  the  angels. 

Two  words  here  are  difficult ;  (a)  "  power  ; "  (b)  "  an- 
gels."— As  to  the  word  '•'  power  "'(Exousia)  the  opinion  best 
supported  makes  it  mean  the  veil  as  a  symbol  of  her  subordi- 
nate relation  to  her  husband,  or  (shall  we  say  ?)  to  intimate 
that  she  reserved  her  beauty  for  him,  and  did  not  make  her- 
self public  property,  nor  display  her  charms  for  general  ad- 
miration.— Some  support  for  this  usage  of  the  word  is  found 
in  the  Septuagint  of  Gen.  20:  IG,  where  the  Hebrew — "a 
covering  of  the  eyes,"  becomes  in  the  Sept.  ''the  honor  of 
the  face." 

"  Angels  "  (the  word  meaning  strictly  messengers)  are 
most  probably  evil-disposed  men,  spies,  obtruding  them- 
selves into  Christian  Avorshipping  assemblies  to  find  occa- 
sion for  traducing  them  before  their  enemies.  The  word 
may  possibly  refer  to  messengers  from  other  churches  pres- 
ent for  worthy  ends,  before  whom  entire  decorum  would 
be  eminently  appropriate.  To  suppose  that  angels  from 
heaven  or  from  hell  arc  thought  of,  is  in  no  manner  prob- 
able. 

11.  Nevertheless  neither  is  the  man  without  the 
woman,  neither  the  woman  without  the  man,  in  the 
Lord. 

12.  For  as  the  woman  is  of  the  man,  even  so  is  the 
man  also  by  the  woman ;  but  all  things  of  God. 

13.  Judge  in  yourselves:  is  it  comely  that  a  woman 
pray  unto  God  uncovered  ? 

14.  Doth  not  even  nature  itseK  teach  you,  that,  if  a 
man  have  long  hair,  it  is  a  shame  unto  him  ? 

15.  But  if  a  woman  have  long  hair,  it  is  a  glory  to 
her :  for  her  hair  is  given  her  for  a  covering. 

16.  But  if  any  man  seem  to  be  contentious,  we  have 
no  such  custom,  neither  the  churches  of  God. 

''In  the  Lord,"  in  human  society  adjusted  under  God 
upon  the  great  laws  He  has  ordained,  monasticism  has  no 
place.  The  sexes  were  constituted  to  associate  together.  As 
woman  was  originally  of  (out  of)  the  man  ;  so  is  man  born 
of  woman  ;  yet  all  alike  owe  their  origin  to  the  one  Crea- 
tor, God. 


242  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XI. 

Ill  V.  14,  15,  Paul  ascribes  the  universal  sentiments  of 
mankind  on  the  points  in  question  to  a  law  of  nature.  To 
man,  long  hair  is  a  shame  ;  it  is  effeminate,  unmanly.  To 
woman,  it  is  a  glory  ;  its  modesty  befits  her  and  does  her 
honor. — If  on  this  general  subject  any  one  is  disposed  to 
contention,  resistance  ;  our  appeal  is  to  the  universal 
usage  of  the  churches — an  authority  that  rests  on  their  good 
sense,  and  should  be  presumed  to  have  the  endorsement  of 
the  divine  Spirit. 

17.  ISTow  in  this  that  I  declare  unto  you  I  praise  you 
not,  that  ye  come  together  not  for  the  better,  but  for  the 
worse. 

18.  For  first  of  all,  when  ye  come  together  in  the 
church,  I  hear  that  there  be  divisions  among  you ;  and 
I  partly  believe  it. 

19.  For  there  must  be  also  heresies  among  you,  that 
they  which  are  ai^jDroved  may  be  made  manifest  among 
you. 

Not  to  praise,  is  to  blame.  The  point  of  fault  is  that 
their  church  gatherings  were  not  unto  profit,  but  unto 
scandal ; — not  to  any  good  result,  but  rather  evil. — In 
V.  18,  we  seem  to  have  one  class  of  evils  under  the  name 
"divisions"  [Gr.  schisms]  ;  in  v.  19,  another  class  under 
the  word  "heresies"  [this  being  also  the  Greek  word]. — 
The  former  he  "  partly  believed," — a  phrase  which  might 
mean  either  that  he  believed  a  part  of  what  he  heard,  or  that 
he  believed  in  part  yet  not  fully.  In  the  former  case  the 
limitation  would  be  in  the  things  stated  ; — in  the  latter,  in 
his  faith.  I  judge  that  he  believed  what  he  had  heard  to 
some  extent — perhaps  he  could  not  determine  how  far. — 
These  schisms  of  v.  18,  I  suppose  to  be  the  splits  among 
church  members — cliques,  parting  themselves  off  from 
other  brethren  as  wealth,  notions  of  caste,  or  of  social 
standing,  might  rule. — The  heresies  of  v.  19,  which  Paul 
assumes  to  be  a  kind  of  necessity  for  purposes  of  moral 
trial,  may  probably  be  the  same  which  appear  in  chap.  1 : 
11,  and  which  lead  the  discussion  in  the  first  four  chapters. 
Of  these  he  says  nothing  further  here,  but  proceeds  to 
speak  of  the  church-cliques — parties  growing  out  of  the 
caste  spirit. 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XI.  243 

20.  "When  ye  come  together  tlierefore  into  one 
place,  this  is  not  to  eat  tlie  Lord's  Supper. 

21.  For  in  eating  every  one  taketli  before  other  liis 
own  supper :  and  one  is  hungry,  and  another  is  drunken. 

22.  What !  have  ye  not  houses  to  eat  and  to  drink 
in  ?  or  despise  ye  the  church  of  God,  and  shame  them 
that  have  not  ?  What  shall  I  say  to  you  ?  shall  I  praise 
you  in  this  ?     I  praise  you  not. 

They  assembled  professedly  to  celebrate  the  Lord's 
Supper  ;  but  abused  it  so  egregiously  that  their  celebration 
was  unworthy  of  the  name — Lord's  Supper.  They  utterly 
vitiated  the  real  oi'dinance,  both  in  the  form  and  in  the 
spirit. — To  understand  vs.  21,  22,  we  need  to  remember 
that  in  primitive  usage,  the  love-feast  [the  AgapaeJ,  im- 
mediately preceded  the  Lord's  Supper.  To  this  love- 
feast,  these  two  verses  refer. — In  their  observance  of  it 
they  parted  themselves  into  groups,  cliques, — each  clique 
or  family  supplying  their  own  board  in  exclusive,  pic-nic 
style  ;  the  rich  providing  for  themselves  luxuriously  ;  the 
poor  but  meagerly  ;  and  then  with  not  the  least  respect  to 
the  fellowship  of  a  church  communion  or  the  decencies  of 
Christian  civilization,  each  grabbed  before  his  fellow  what 
he  could  get  hold  of,  one  ravenously  hungry,  another  be- 
sotted with  strong  drink  ! — No  wonder  Paul  exclaims — 
shame  !  Have  ye  not  houses  of  your  own  where  the  stress 
of  hunger  ought  to  be  stayed  ?  Do  ye  despise  the  decencies 
and  civilities  ot  the  church  of  God,  and  disgrace  the  poor 
who  have  nothing  ? — Shall  I  praise  you  for  tiiis  ?    Never  ! 

23.  For  I  have  received  of  the  Lord  that  which  also 
I  delivered  unto  you,  That  the  Lord  Jesus,  the  same 
night  in  which  he  was  betrayed,  took  bread : 

21.  And  when  he  had  given  thanks,  he  brake  it,  and 
said,  Take,  eat ;  this  is  my  body,  which  is  broken  for 
you  :  this  do  in  rememberance  of  me. 

25.  After  the  same  manner  also  he  tooh  the  cup  when 
he  had  supped,  saying.  This  cuj)  is  the  new  testament  in 
my  blood  :  this  do  ye,  as  oft  as  ye  drink  it,  in  remem- 
berance of  me. 

26.  For  as  often  as  ye  eat  this  bread,  and  drink  this 
cup,  ye  do  shew  the  Lord's  death  till  he  come. 


214  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XI. 

This  statement  of  the  original  institution  of  the  Supper 
corresponds  most  closely  with  that  given  by  Luke  (23:  19, 
20,) — a  fact  which  confirms  the  opinion  that  they  both 
drew  from  the  same  source  ;  that  Paul  as  himself  says  had 
his  facts  direct  from  Christ  himself ;  and  that  Luke 
(probably)  received  his  account  from  Paul. — Luke  repre- 
sents that  Christ  did  four  things,  viz.,  took  bread  ;  gave 
tlianks  ;  brake;  distributed; — and  then  said — '"'This  is 
my  body,  given  for  you  ;  this  do  in  remembrance  of  me." 
This  order  appears  here,  and  in  addition,  this  :  "  As  often 
as  ye  shall  eat,  ye  do  show  forth  the  Lord's  death  till  he 
come." 

Matthew  and  Mark  use  essentially  the  same  words  ;  but 
both  omit — "Do  this  in  remembrance  of  me,"  and  also 
what  Paul  only  says  about  "  showing  forth  the  Lord's  death 
till  he  come  ;" — each  however  adding  certain  other  words 
(Matt.  26:  26-29,  and  Mark  14:  22-25). 

It  should  be  noted  that  those  abuses  at  Corinth  made  it 
appropriate  for  Paul  to  give  his  authority  from  Christ 
himself  ;  and  also  to  make  the  great  points  of  the  institu- 
tion entirely  distinct  ^nd  emphatic.  Especially  this 
'•'showing  forth  of  the  Lord's  death  till  he  should  come," 
was  in  itself  solemnly  impressive,  and  should  have  rebuked 
their  unpardonable  abuse  of  the  sacred  ordinance.  So 
also  the  stress  laid  upon  the  point,  "  Do  this  in  remember- 
ance  of  me  !"  Any  real  remembrance  of  Christ  would 
stringently  rebuke  the  spirit  of  their  celebration,  and  show 
it  to  be  utterly  incompatible  with  Christ's  ordinance. 

27.  Wherefore  wliosoever  shall  eat  this  bread,  and 
drink  this  cup  of  the  Lord,  unworthily,  shall  be  guilty 
of  the  body  and  blood  of  the  Lord. 

28.  But  let  a  man  examine  himself,  and  so  lot  liini 
eat  of  that  bread,  and  drink  of  that  cup. 

29.  For  he  that  eateth  and  drinketh  un'wortliily,  eat- 
etli  and  drinketh.  damnation  to  himself,  not  discerning 
the  Lord's  body. 

30.  For  this  canse  many  are  weak  and  sickly  among 
yon,  and  many  sleep. 

31.  For  if  we  would  judge  ourselves,  we  should  not 
be  judged. 

32.  But  when  we  arc  judged  we  are  cbastened  of 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XI.  245 

the  Lord,  tliat  M'e  slionld  not  be  condemned   with  the 
world. 

These  verses  aim  to  set  forth  the  great  sin  at  Corinth 
in  its  true  light,  and  to  declare  its  fearful  punishment. — 
''  Guilty  of  the  body  and  blood  of  the  Lord,"  means, 
guilty  of  a  crime  against  his  very  body  and  blood  ;  guilty  of 
dishonoring  that  sacred  body  and  blood — of  scandalizing 
this  holy  supper,  the  aim  of  which  is  to  impress  on  Chris- 
tian souls  their  everlasting  obligations  of  gratitude,  love 
and  self-sacrifice  to  Him  who  has  laid  down  his  life  for  us. 
This  will  be  greater  or  less  according  to  the  subjective 
spirit  of  the  act,  and  especially,  the  light  sinned  against. 
What  Paul  says  here  is  that,  objectively  considered,  it  is 
against  Chi'ist's  sacred  body  and  blood,  and  must  therefore 
be  a  fearful  crime. 

''  Let  a  man  examine  himself," — turn  his  thought  in- 
ward upon  his  spiritual  state  and  consider  his  life — that 
he  may  see  how  the  significance  of  this  sujiper  applies  to 
his  own  soul.  So,  thoughtfully,  tenderly,  solemnly — let 
him  partake  of  these  symbols,  and  take  in  their  suggestive 
significance,  the  moral  lessons  they  are  designed  and  well 
adapted  to  impress. 

AVe  must  admire  the  wisdom  of  this  warning,  as 
adapted  to  the  abuses  then  existing.  In  their  case  the 
points  of  chief  danger  were — that  the  heart  might  be 
ntterly  wrong  ;  that  the  communicants  were  thinking  of 
what  was  utterly  irrevelant,  of  not  the  least  account,  and 
indeed  was  positively  sinful — their  church  cliques,  their 
chosen  associates,  their  party  and  the  high  social  distinc- 
tion they  were  enjoying  above  their  poorer  brethren  ! 
Alas  !  How  could  they  carry  so  much  selfishness  and  sin 
into  the  presence  of  their  dying  Eedeemer  !  How  could 
they  so  ignore  the  moral  state  of  their  souls,  the  sins  they 
ought  to  be  confessing  and  renouncing,  the  fellowship  with 
Christ's  people  they  ought  to  be  cherishing,  the  sense  of 
his  amazing  compassion  and  love  which  should  put  to  shame 
their  social  pride  ! — Paul  seems  to  assume  that  every 
Christian  will  know  what  self-examination  means,  and 
what  state  of  heart  is  appi'opriate  to  this  holy  communion. 

In  v.  29.  The  word  ''damnation"  is  too  strong  to 
correspond  with  the  Greek  word,  Avhich  means  only  judg- 
ment [krima,  not  katakrima].     All  that  Paul  said  was  that 


246  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XI. 

the  Lord  will  judge  him  ;  and  this  judgment  he  explains 
(v.  32)  as  in  the  first  instance  a  chastening  for  purposes  of 
moral  discipline,  and  not  a  visitation  of  retributive  punish- 
ment as  upon  the  Avorld  of  the  ungodly. 

'*'  Not  discerning  the  Lord's  body  "  means,  not  discrimi- 
nating between  what  represents  the  Lord's  body  and  what 
has  no  such  sacred  purpose  ;  that  is,  the  sin  of  ignoring 
the  special  sacredness  of  this  bread  and  wine  because  se'c 
apart  to  represent  Christ's  body  and  blood.  To  treat  these 
elements  as  if  they  had  no  sacredness  greatly  dishonored 
the  Lord.  It  struck  a  fatal  blow  at  this  institution  itself  ; 
for  it  were  far  better  to  have  no  Lord's  supper  than  one 
from  which  the  true  spirit  and  soul  had  departed.  To 
make  a  feast  of  gluttony  and  drunkenness  over  Christ's 
body  and  blood  must  be  more  than  revolting ;  it  must  be 
fearfully  depraving  to  human  souls  and  insulting  to  our 
dying  Eedeemer. 

V.  30,  refers  to  judgments  already  brought  upon  some 
in  that  church.  Some  were  chastened  with  sickness  and 
infirmity ;  some  had  slept  in  death.  There  could  be  no 
safety  against  these  fearful  inflictions  except  by  judging 
themselves  in  the  sense  of  that  conscious,  close,  searching 
self-examination  which  Paul  had  enjoined.  Neglecting 
this,  they  must  expect  sore  chastisement,  for  God  would 
certainly  seek  to  save  them  from  everlasting  damnation. 

33.  Wherefore,  my  brethren,  when  ye  come  together 
to  eat,  tany  one  for  another. 

3-i.  And  if  any  man  hunger,  let  him  eat  at  home ; 
that  ye  come  not  together  unto  condemnation.  And  the 
rest  will  I  set  in  order  when  I  come. 

These  concluding  words  touch  briefly  upon  the  scan- 
dalous manners  and  ways  of  that  church  in  its  observance 
of  the  Supper  and  its  antecedent  Love-feast. 

\ye  look  with  amazement  at  those  flagrant  abuses,  and 
can  by  no  means  account  for  them  except  as  we  recal  the 
idol  festivals  of  corrupt,  lascivious  Corinth,  where  such  pro- 
ceedings were  common  and  sufficiently  congenial  to  the 
selfishness  and  sensuality  of  heathenism. — Manifestly  the 
gospel  had  yet  a  mighty  work  to  do  in  even  the  church  at 
Corinth. 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XII.  217 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Spiritual  gifts  in  the  primitive  church  are  the  leading 
theme  in  chaps.  12-14  : — treated  first  in  chap.  12,  as  to 
their  general  character  and  objects,  making  prominent  the 
fact  ot  U7iifi/  amid  diversity — their  one  purpose,  yet  under 
extremely  various  manifestations  and  forms. 

Chap.  13,  is  really  an  episode  on  the  supremacy  of  love 
— its  surpassing  excellence,  towering  high  above  all  these 
spiritual  gifts,  and  even  above  any  and  all  other  graces  of 
the  christian  character. 

Chap.  14,  resumes  the  discussion  of  spiritual  gifts  to 
show  that  those  among  them  should  be  esteemed  most 
which  bear  most  directly  upon  christian  edification.  Chap. 
12,  aims  particularly  to  show  that  all  these  gifts  come  from 
the  same  divine  Spirit ;  are  distributed  with  very  great  di- 
versity in  their  character  and  special  purpose,  yet  always 
bearing  upon  the  same  high  ends — the  edification  of 
the  church,  Christ's  body. — The  illustration  which  runs 
through  most  of  the  chapter  is  drawn  from  the  human  body 
in  which  are  many  several  members,  exceedingly  diverse  in 
their  functions,  yet  all  ministering  each  in  its  sphere  to  the 
purposes  of  the  whole  body. 

That  this  discussion  appears  in  a  letter  to  Corinth  rather 
than  in  any  other  of  Paul's  epistles  is  probably  due  to  the 
high  intellectual  culture  of  that  city  ;  to  the  city  pride  in 
that  culture  and  to  the  consequent  ambition  for  those  gifts 
which  were  in  highest  repute  there.  These  circumstances 
made  these  gifts  a  spiritual  snare  to  the  church  in  the  line 
of  temptation  to  unhallowed  ambition.  Hence  the  occasion 
for  presenting  and  enforcing  the  points  made  in  this 
chapter. 

1.  ]^ow  concerning  spiritual  gifts,  brethren,  I  would 
not  have  you  ignorant, 

2.  Ye  know  that  ye  were  Gentiles,  carried  away 
unto  these  dumb  idols,  even  as  ye  were  led. 

''I  would  not  have  you  ignorant "  should  have  been 
made  stronger  ; — I  am  not  willing  ye  should  remain  igno- 
rant. In  V.  2,  read — not  "ye  know  that  ye  were  Gentiles  " 
— which  scarcely  needed  to  be  said  ;  but — "ye  know  that 


248  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XII. 

whe7i  ye  were  Gentiles,  ye  were  borne  away  toward  (or 
unto)  those  voiceless  idols,  as  ye  might  chance  to  be  led. 
They  were  "  voiceless  "  in  broad  distinction  from  the  many- 
voiced  Spirit  of  God.  They  had  neither  truth  to  speak 
nor  the  power  to  say  it  if  they  had  had  it  to  say.  But  God, 
the  eternal  Fountain  of  all  knowledge,  had  given  his  Spirit 
to  utter  in  expressive  forms  this  very  knowledge,  as  his 
intelligent  creatures  might  need. 

3.  "Wherefore  I  give  you  to  understand  that  no  man 
speaking  by  the  Spirit  of  God  calleth  Jesus  accursed : 
and  that  no  man  can  say  that  Jesus  is  the  Lord,  but  by 
the  Holy  Ghost. 

Here  the  underlying  truth  is  that  the  divine  Spirit  is 
officially  the  Revealer  of  Christ.  This  comprehensively 
is  his  function — his  high  mission.  Consequently  his  in- 
ward, truth-speaking  suggestions  never  move  men  to  call 
Jesus  anathema  ;  nor  can  any  man  say  from  his  heart  that 
Jesus  is  Lord  [Messiali]  but  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  Not  only 
does  the  Spirit  witness  to  men  that  Jesus  is  the  Lord,  but 
they  never  accept  this  truth  in  its  full  significance,  other- 
wise than  through  his  inspirations. 

This  allusion  to  calling  Jesus  anathema  is  (supposably) 
due  to  the  fact  that  unbelieving  Jews  were  wont  to  pro- 
nounce this  fearful  word  of  theirs  over  his  name.  Of  course 
they  did  this,  not  speaking  by  the  Holy  Ghost  but  as  re- 
mote from  all  sympathy  with  Him  as  is  possible. 

This  verse  (be  it  noted)  gives  the  key-note  of  the  chap- 
ter— viz.,  that  the  Spirit  witnesses  for  Christ;  has  it  for 
his  mission  to  teach  the  things  of  Christ  and  by  this  means 
edify  the  church  in  the  knowledge  and  love  of  his  name. 

4.  Now  there  are  diversities  of  gifts,  but  tlie  same 
Spirit, 

5.  And  there  arc  differences  of  administrations,  but 
the  same  Lord. 

6.  And  there  are  diversities  of  operations,  but  it  is 
the  same  God  which  worketh  all  in  all. 

Paul  used  his  word  for  '''diversities"  (diaireseis)  in  v.  5 
as  well  as  vs.  4-6  :  and  our  translators  should  have  followed 
him  and  have  said  "  diversities  "  in  each  verse  if  in  either. 
— The  noticeable  thirg  in  the  whole  passage  is  that  these 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XII.  249 

diversities  (1)  are  ascribed  to  the  same  Spirit  as  present 
and  manifested  in  them  all  :  (2)  are  thought  of  as  adminis- 
tered— sent  forth  and  directed — by  the  same  Lord  Jesus  ; 
and  (3)  as  energized,  worked,  imbued  with  their  vital  force, 
by  the  same  God,  working  all  things  in  and  through  all 
these  agencies.  It  is  one  case  among  several  in  which  Paul 
recognizes  a  Trinity  of  distinct  divine  forces  and  agencies, 
all  concurring  to  the  same  ultimate  ends.  Here  he  begins 
with  the  Spirit — the  Holy  Ghost ;  next,  adduces  the  Lord 
Jesus ;  and  last,  God.  The  same  Spirit  is  present  in  all 
these  gifts  ;  the  same  Lord  administers  them  all :  the  same 
God  provides  the  working  energy  in  all. — It  cannot,  I  think, 
be  questioned  that  Paul  distinctly  recognizes  a  Trinity  in 
the  one  God  and  purposely  honors  that  Trinity.  He  saw 
in  these  gifts  the  fact  of  a  three-fold  manifestation  of  the 
one  God — a  manifestation  which  involved  more  than  merely 
three  diverse  modes  of  exhibiting  divine  activity  ;  a  some- 
thing more  which  Ave  cannot  name  or  define  better  than  by 
calling  it  a  modified  7Jerso«rt?i7_?/. 

7.  But  the  manifestation  of  the  Spirit  is  given  to 
every  man  to  profit  withal. 

8.  For  to  one  is  given  by  the  Spirit  the  word  of  wis- 
dom ;  to  another  the  word  of  knowledge  by  the  same 
Spirit ; 

9.  To  another  faith  by  the  same  Spirit ;  to  another 
the  gifts  of  healing  by  the  same  Spirit ; 

10.  To  another  the  working  of  miracles  ;  to  another 
prophecy ;  to  another  discerning  of  spirits ;  to  another 
divers  kinds  of  tongues ;  to  another  the  interpretation  of 
tongues. 

11.  But  all  these  worketh  that  one  and  the  self -same 
Spirit,  dividing  to  every  man  severally  as  lie  will. 

However  great  the  diversity  of  these  gifts,  their  only 
purpose  is  spiritual  profit. — This  passage  enumerates  these 
various  gifts,  and  gives  to  each  its  distinctive  name. — Of 
the  precise  distinction  between  ''wisdom"  and  "knowl- 
edge "'  we  cannot  be  entirely  sure,  for  it  may  not  have  been 
the  very  same  which  is  now  made  between  these  words. 
These  special  gifts  passed  away  long  since,  leaving  no  de- 
fining history  to  draw  the  line  precisely  between  one  and 
another.     The  early  Christian  Fathers  felt  the  same  diffi- 


250  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XII. 

culty  that  we  feel  as  to  this  accurate  definition  and  distinc- 
tion ;  for  even  in  their  day,  these  manifestations  were  long 
past  and  had  left  no  perfect  history  of  their  working. — 
Paul's  special  point  here  is  that  the  same  Spirit  was  the 
autlior  of  all  these  gifts  and  distributed  them  to  each  man 
at  his  pleasure. 

In  V.  9.  "faith"  must  refer  to  the  miracle-working 
power,  and  not  specially  to  tlie  acceptance  of  Christ  for 
personal  salvation.  — What  distinction  obtains  between 
'•'  faith  "  as  used  here,  and  the  working  of  miracles  (v.  10.) 
it  were  vain  to  presume.  As  has  been  several  times  sug- 
gested, "  prophecy"  had  a  broader  sense  than  merely  pre- 
dicting future  events. 

12.  For  as  the  body  is  one,  and  hath  many  members, 
and  all  the  members  of  that  one  body,  being  many  are 
one  body :  so  also  is  Christ. 

13.  For  by  one  Spirit  are  we  all  baptized  into  one 
body,  whether  toe  he  Jews  or  Gentiles,  whether  we  he 
bond  or  free ;  and  have  been  all  made  to  drink  into  one 
Spirit. 

Here  Paul  introduces  the  figure  which  leads  the  thought 
throughout  the  rest  of  the  chapter — the  human  body  with 
its  many  distinct  members,  representing  the  church,  con- 
sidered as  the  body  of  Christ,  in  which  church  are  many 
different  individual  members,  each  having  his  special  func- 
tion and  gift. — The  last  clause  of  v.  12  means — So  also  is 
the  body  of  Christ,  i.  e.  the  church.  That  this  is  Paul's 
thought  is  made  clear  in  v.  37 — "  Ye  are  the  body  of 
Christ."  Indeed  it  lies  at  the  foundation  of  this  figure. 
By  one  and  the  same  Spirit  we  are  all  baptized  into  the 
one  body  of  Christ,  pledged  to  his  love  and  service,  and  thus 
consecrated  to  the  one  supreme  purpose  of  living  for  him  as 
his  people. — All  alike,  whether  we  may  be  Jew  or  Greek, 
bond  or  free, — In  the  last  clause  the  word  "  into  "  is  super- 
fluous, damaging  rather  than  aiding  the  sense.  It  is  omitted 
in  the  best  textual  authorities, — We  have  all  been  made  to 
drink  one  Spirit — the  Spirit  being  here  under  the  Old  Tes- 
tament symbol  of  "  water."  We  do  not  drink  into  the  same 
water  :  we  drink  the  same  water. 

14.  For  the  body  is  not  one  member,  but  many. 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XII.  251 

15.  If  the  foot  shall  say,  Because  I  am  not  the  hand, 
I  am  not  of  the  body ;  is  it  therefore  not  of  the  body  ? 

16.  And  if  the  ear  shall  say,  Because  I  am  not  the 
eye,  I  am  not  of  the  body  ;  it  is  therefore  not  of  body  ? 

17.  If  the  whole  body  were  an  eye  where  were  the 
hearing?  if  the  whole  xoere  hearing,  where  were  the 
smelling? 

18.  But  now  hath  God  set  the  members  every  one 
of  them  in  the  body,  as  it  hath  j^leased  him. 

The  body  is  not  one  solid  member  like  a  block  of  mar- 
ble, but  is  composed  of  many  members,  each  having  its  own 
function  to  fulfil. — To  make  his  practical  point  quite  clear 
Paul  makes  suppositions.  Suppose  the  foot — one  of  the 
least  prominent  and  active  members — should  say — Because 
I  am  not  hand,  I  am  not  of  the  body ;  I  should  not  be 
missed  ;  nobody  cares  much  for  me  ;  I  will  just  retire  and 
be  out  of  the  way. — In  the  last  clause  of  v.  15  and  also  in  v. 
16,  the  best  text  is  not  interrogative,  but  declarative — thus  : 
*'  If  the  foot  shall  say — Because  I  am  not  hand  I  am  not  of 
the  body,  it  is  not,  for  this,  out  of  the  body  : " — this  little 
outburst  of  wounded  pride  has  not  severed  the  foot  from 
the  body.     The  original  has  no  indication  of  a  question. 

Each  organ  has  its  use  ;  and  this  not  so  much  for  itself 
as  for  the  whole  body.  If  the  whole  body  were  eye  and  could 
do  nothing  but  see,  it  were  a  very  useless  thing.  The  vast 
capabilities  of  the  human  body  would  be,  where  ? — Or  if  we 
suppose  the  present  human  body  with  not  its  five  senses, 
but  only  one  sense — say,  of  sight,  or  hearing,  taste  or  smell, 
— a  sad,  disabled  thing  it  would  be  ! — As  it  is,  each  several 
organ  cannot  be  the  brightest,  the  most  observed,  the  most 
flattered ;  some  one  must  be  at  least  a  little  in  advance  of 
the  others  and  these  others  a  little  behind  ; — but  jealousy, 
pride  and  envy  in  the  less  conspicuous  organ  would  be  in 
wretchedly  bad  taste — would  be  only  a  display  of  insipid 
folly. 

So  in  the  church.  Paul  would  have  each  church  mem- 
ber apply  this  illustration  to  his  own  wounded  pride — to 
his  own  contemptible  envy  of  his  more  celebrated  and  hon- 
ored brother.  There  will  be  some  humble  gifts  alongside 
of  others  more  brilliant  and  honored  ;  let  not  the  humble 
make  a  display  of  their  jealousy  or  envy  ;  but  faithfully 


252  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XII. 

and  thankfully  fulfil  each  his  appropriate  function.     This 
Paul  would  teach  and  exhort. 

19.  And  if  they  were  all  one  member,  where  were 
the  body  % 

20.  i3ut  now  arc  they  many  members,  yet  but  one 
body. 

21.  And  the  eye  cannot  say  unto  the  hand,  I  have  no 
need  of  thee :  nor  again  the  head  to  the  feet,  I  have  no 
need  of  you. 

For  the  sake  of  a  stronger  and  more  distinct  impression, 
the  same  points  are  put  in  a  slightly  different  form.  I  judge 
that  Paul  had  a  keen  sense,  not  of  the  folly  alone,  but  of 
the  ludicrous,  ridiculous  nonsense  of  this  sort  of  mutiny 
among  the  various  members  of  the  human  body.  0  if  his 
proud,  envious  church  members  in  Corinth  might  only  see 
it  as  it  is  and  see  themselves  in  this  mirror  of  human 
hearts  ! 

22.  Nay,  much  more  those  members  of  the  body, 
which  seem  to  be  more  feeble,  are  necessary. 

23.  And  those  members  of  the  body,  which  we  think 
to  be  less  honourable,  upon  these  we  bestow  more  abun- 
dant honour;  and  our  uncomely^a/'fc  have  more  abundant 
comeliness. 

21.  For  our  comely  yarts  have  no  need:  but  God 
hath  tempered  the  body  together,  having  given  more 
abundant  honour  to  that  pari  which  lacked : 

25.  That  there  should  be  no  schism  in  the  body ;  but 
that  the  members  should  have  the  same  care  one  for  an- 
other. 

26.  And  wliether  one  member  suffer,  all  the  members 
suffer  with  it ;  or  one  member  be  honoured,  all  the  mem- 
bers rejoice  with  it. 

27.  Now  ye  are  the  body  of  Christ,  and  members  in 
particular. 

The  more  feeble  members  are  found  to  be  very  neces- 
sary if  once  their  functions  fail.  Paley  tells  of  a  man  who 
by  some  casualty  lost  the  muscle  that  lifts  the  eye-lashes, 
and  was  obliged  to  raise  them  with  his  hand  in  order  to  see. 
He  never  had  appreciated  the  convenience  and  value  of  that 
small  muscle  before. 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XII.  253 

Paul  refers  to  the  less  comely  members  whicli  we  never 
put  on  exhibition,  and  says  of  them  that  we  give  them  a 
certain  extra  ornamentation,  as  if  to  raise  them  to  the 
common  level  of  comeliness.  So  God  has  compensations 
which  serve  to  balance  up  the  otherwise  lower  and  humbler 
parts  and  bring  them  more  nearly  upon  a  common  footing 
Avith  all  the  rest.  The  doctrine  in  this  is  that  there  should 
never  be  any  schism — any  mutiny  or  even  jealousy  in  the 
church  body;  but  rather  a  mutual  sympathy,  love  and  care 
reigning  throughout  them.  Thus  if  one  member  suffer, 
all  should  sympathize  with  that  suffering  member — as  hap- 
pens always  to  some  extent  in  the  human  body. 

The  use  of  the  old  word  "whether" — now  obsolete  in 
the  sense  given  it  here — damages  the  force  of  this  passage. 
Its  meaning  is  fully  expressed  thus  : — If  one  member  suffer, 
all  suffer  with  it ;  if  one  member  be  honored,  all  rejoice 
with  it. — Thus  (v.  27)  ye  are  the  body  of  Christ  and  mem- 
bers of  it  severally  (better  than  ''in  particular") — each  of 
you  severally  in  his  sphere,  ye  are  members  of  that  one 
body. 

28.  And  God  hath  set  some  in  the  clmrch,  first  apos- 
tles, secondarily  prophets,  thirdly  teachers,  after  that 
miracles,  then  gifts  of  healings,  helps,  governments,  di- 
versities of  tongues. 

29.  Are  all  apostles  ?  are  all  prophets  ?  are  all  teach- 
ers ?  are  all  workers  of  miracles  % 

30.  Have  all  the  gifts  of  healing  ?  do  all  speak  with 
tongues  %  do  all  interpret  ? 

31.  But  covet  earnestly  the  best  gifts :  and  jet  shew 
I  unto  you  a  more  excellent  way. 

The  authorized  version — ''  God  hath  set  some  in  the 
church,"  is  very  infelicitous — especially  in  this  use  of 
"some."  What  Panl  said  was  this:  "  ^M^O'm  God  hath 
set  [located]  in  the  churcb,"  this  "whom"  referring  to  all 
the  various  members  spoken  of  in  the  preceding  verses. 
All  these  members  of  Christ's  body  with  their  various  func- 
tions God  hath  placed  in  his  church  ; — first,  Apostles  ; 
second,  prophets,  etc.  They  are  not  all  apostles ;  are  not 
all  prophets  ;  but  some  have  one  function  and  some  an- 
other.— We  may  assume  that  Paul  has  made  up  a  some- 
what complete  list  of  the  more  prominent  classes  having 


254  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XII. 

special  gifts. — A  similar  but  briefer  list  appears  in  Epli. 
4;  11. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  thing  to  notice  here,  bear- 
ing upon  the  interpretation  is  that  this  is  not  so  much  a 
list  of  office-bearers  as  of  gift-holders — those  who  had  the 
special  endowments  conferred  by  the  diverse  ministrations 
01  the  Spirit.  Under  this  view  of  the  case,  we  may  dismiss 
the  discussion  of  the  question  as  to  the  grades  of  office  in- 
dicated here. 

In  V.  31,  the  first  verb,  ''covet,"  may,  as  to  grammati- 
cal form,  be  either  indicative  or  imperative  ; — either  ye 
are  very  covetous  of  best  gifts  ;  or  I  exliort  you  to  be  so — 
covet  ye  all  best  gifts.  Our  auth.  vers,  takes  the  Litter  alter- 
native ;  but  manifestly  the  former  is  right — as  is  sliown  by 
the  last  clause — "And  yet  I  show  you  a  way  far  more  ex- 
cellent."— Suppose  we  read — I  exhort  you  to  covet  the  best 
gifts,  yet  I  can  give  you  much  better  advice  than  that,  and 
I  will  now  proceed  to  do  so. — This  is  far  from  being  pei'- 
tinent. — But  if  we  read,  [I  regret  to  see  that]  ye  are  covet- 
ous of  the  most  shining  gifts ;  yet  I  can  show  you  a  far 
more  excellent  way  [and  will  proceed  to  do  so],  we  obtain 
a  sense  every  way  pertinent. 

Yet  again ;  The  real  meaning  of  the  passage  must  turn 
very  much  upon  the  sense  of  the  word  translated  "  best." 
If  "best"  were  the  true  text,  then  in  Paul's  sense  of 
"best"  gifts,  he  might  exhort  them  to  seek  those  gifts 
earnestly  :  while  in  their  sense  of  the  word  he  could  not 
exhort  thus.  The  true  text  therefore  becomes  specially 
important.  The  best  authorities  give  it  —  not  the  best 
[kreittona]  but  the  greater  [meizona] — which  must  doubt- 
less mean  the  more  prominent,  the  more  distinguished, 
i.  e.  in  their  esteem.  This  shows  that  the  construction 
must  be  indicative — ye  do — and  not  im^ierative — do  ye. 


-«yi- 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

This  entire  chapter  is  an  episode,  a  digression  from 

the  theme  begun  in  chap  12 ;  taken  up  and  finished  in 

chapter  14.     It  is  a  special  essay  on  love.  It  is  Paul's  ful- 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XIII.  255 

fillment  of  his  promise  (11:  31)  to  show  '"'the  more  excel- 
lent way  "  than  that  of  coveting  the  grandest  gifts  in  the 
whole  range  of  the  charismata  of  the  primitive  church. 
Tliis  promise  he  does  indeed  most  admirably  fulfil. 

This  wonderful  chapter  has  a  well  digested  method. 
Vs.  1-3  compare  love  with  other  most  valued  things  and 
declare  that  those  without  this  are  nothing. — Vs.  4-7  tell  us 
what  love  does  and  what  it  does  not ;  for  no  better  test  of 
its  value  can  be  had  than  to  put  it  to  the  proof  and  try  it 
by  its  capabilities  and  by  its  actual  performances. — Then 
in  V.  8  he  dwells  on  its  surpassing  endurance  ; — its  perpetu- 
ity— outlasting  all  the  other  most  valuable  acquisitions  of 
mortals  ; — closing  finally  by  placing  it  in  comparison — not 
with  any  of  the  spiritual  gifts  of  those  times,  but  with  the 
graces  of  christian  character,  compared  with  which  it  is 
shown  to  eclipse  them  all. 

Preliminary  to  the  intelligent  study  of  this  chapter,  Ave 
must  give  special  attention  to  the  word  ••' charity" — a  word 
which  must  be  responsible  for  obscuring  to  many  minds 
the  significance  and  beauty  of  this  whole  passage. 

Charity,  here,  is  not  beneficence — giving  alms  to  the 
poor — this  sense  of  the  word  being  by  no  means  broad 
enough  to  answer  its  description  ;  besides  that  Paul  sup- 
poses himself  to  give  all  his  goods  to  feed  the  poor  and  yet 
have  no  charity. 

Again,  this  ''charity"  is  not  a  favorable  judgment  of 
others'  character  or  conduct — the  opposite  of  suspicion, 
jealousy,  severe  judgment  on  others  ;  for  this  sense  of  the 
word  is  entirely  too  narrow  to  meet  this  description  of 
charity. 

But  positively,  "  charity  "  here  is  nothing  more  or  less 
tlian  love— real  love — good  will  to  men.  It  translates 
the  Greek  word  [agapae] — a  word  which  our  New  Testa- 
ment translates  '*'  love"  in  an  immense  majority  of  cases  ; — 
always  when  used  by  Christ  or  by  John ;  in  vei-y  many 
cases  when  used  by  Paul ;  yet  throughout  this  chapter 
and  in  eighteen  other  passages,  they  translate  it  "  charity; " 
while  they  translate  it  love  in  not  less  than  fifty  cases. — 
How  to  account  for  this  diversity  and  for  this  use  of  the 
word  charity,  is  not  quite  clear.  It  is  supposable  that  in 
their  time  the  word  had  some  shades  of  meaning  now 
obsolete,  so  that  it  better  represented  the  idea  of  love  then 
than  now  ;  also  that  the  translation  of  Paul's  epistles  was 


256  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XIII. 

made  by  one  set  of  men  and  the  gospels  and  epistles  of  John 
by  another  set ;  or  we  must  put  it  to  the  account  of  mere 
caprice — the  latter  scarcely  probable.  Be  the  explanation 
Avhat  it  may,  the  word  love  should  certainly  supersede 
^'  tharity,"  especially  so  in  this  chapter. 

1.  Though  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of 
angels,  and  have  not  charity,  I  am  become  as  sounding 
brass,  or  a  tinkling  cymbal. 

2.  And  though  I  have  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  un- 
stand  all  mysteries,  and  all  knowledge;  and  though  I 
have  all  faith,  so  that  I  could  remove  mountains,  and 
have  not  charity,  I  am  nothing. 

3.  And  though  I  bestow  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor ^ 
and  though  I  give  my  body  to  be  burned,  and  have  not 
charity,  it  proliteth  me  nothing. 

Speaking  with  tongues  comes  first  to  Paul's  thought 
because  this  gift  had  been  esteemed  above  all  the  rest  in 
the  group  by  the  people  of  cultured  Corinth.  So  Paul 
opens  grandly ; — Though  I  spake  all  the  tongues  of  earth 
and  heaven— all  the  languages  known  to  men  or  to  angels  ; 
yet  if  I  have  not  love,  I  have  become  sounding  brass  or  a 
tinkling  cymbal — good  for  noise  and  for  noise  only. — Then 
passing  on  to  the  spiritual  gifts  next  in  popular  esteem,  he 
supposes  himself  to  have  all  prophesy  and  to  know  all 
mysteries  and  all  science  [Greek],  and  even  to  have  all 
faith  so  as  to  remove  mountains — of  course  faith  as  related 
to  the  miracle-working  power — even  then,  without  love,  he 
says  I  am  nothing.  The  elements  of  real  value  in  charac- 
ter are  not  there. 

This  measure  of  the  faith  of  miracles — removing  moun- 
tains— comes  apparently  from  Christ's  words  (Mat.  17:  20 
and  21:  21).  '*  If  ye  have  faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard-seed, 
ye  shall  say  to  this  mountain  ;  Remove  hence  to  yonder 
place  ;  and  it  sliall  remove  ; "  or  "  Be  thou  removed  and 
be  thou  cast  into  the  sea,  and  it  shall  be  done." — And  next, 
though  I  deal  out  (in  morsels,  the  Greek  word  puts  it) 
little  by  little,  patiently,  toilsomely,  all  my  possessions  ;  and 
though  with  a  martyr's  zeal,  I  yield  my  body  to  be  burned, 
yet  if  I  have  not  love  (a  case  supposable),  I  am  profited  iu 
nothing.     All  this  avails  me  not  before  God. 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XIII  257 

4.  Charity  suffereth  long,  and  is  kind ;  cliarit  j  envieth 
not ;  charity  vauuteth  not  itself,  is  not  puffed  np, 

5.  Doth  not  behave  itself  unseemly,  seeketh  not  her 
own,  is  not  easily  provoked,  thinketh  no  evil ; 

6.  Kejoiceth  not  in  iniquity,  but  rejoiceth  in  the 
truth ; 

7.  Beareth  all  things,  believeth  all  things,  hopetli  all 
things,  endureth  all  things. 

These  things  that  love  does — these  qualities  of  temper 
and  disposition  which  it  manifests,  are  readily  intelligible. — 
"Vauuteth  not  itself" — is  not  boastful  in  self-praise,  and 
this  because  it  seeks  not  self-exaltation  but  the  exaltation 
of  others. — "  Is  not  puffed  "  with  self-conceit,  vanity. — 
*'  Does  not  behave  itself  unseemly  " — for  the  chief  tempta- 
tion to  unseemly  behavior  is  the  ambition  for  notoriety ; 
an  excessive  desire  to  attract  notice  and  win  applause. — 
'■'  Seeketh  not  her  own  " — literally,  the  things  of  itself.  No 
point  in  this  entire  description  is  more  expressive,  more 
philosophical,  than  this.  The  difference  between  the  lov- 
ing spirit  and  the  not  loving  spirit,  manifests  itself  in  this 
point  more  precisely  than  in  any  other ; — the  one  does  not 
seek  its  own,  and  the  other  does. 

"  Is  not  easily  provoked"  because  love  is  not  specially 
sensitive  in  defense  of  its  own  assumed  dignity ;  is  not 
afraid  of  being  slighted  or  undervalued. 

"Thinketh  no  evil;  "is  unsuspicious,  inclines  to  the 
more  favorable  construction  of  doubtful  things.  It  is 
always  more  pleasant  for  love  to  think  well  of  others  than 
to  think  ill. — In  v.  6  the  question  of  interpretation  is 
whether  iniquity  and  truth  are  precisely  correlated  to  each 
other,  inasmuch  as  properly  iniquity  is  said  of  acts  as  right 
or  wrong  ;  truth  of  things  in  the  abstract  as  corresponding 
or  otherwise  with  the  facts  of  the  case.  Iniquity  gives  the 
character  of  a  moral  agent ;  truth  in  its  strict  usage  does 
not. — But  are  we  bound  to  assume  a  close  correlation  ? 

"  Truth"  here  most  probably  refers  to  the  gospel  sys- 
tem as  the  greatest  embodiment  of  truth  ;  and  love  is  said 
to  rejoice  in  it  as  being  in  fullest  sympathy  with  its  spirit 
and  joyful  in  its  prosperity.  This  stands  squarely  over 
against  iniquity  ;  no  antagonism  could  be  sterner  or  stron- 
ger. Love  has  no  joy  in  iniquity,  but  all  joy  in  blessed 
gospel  truth. 


^58  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XIII. 

In  V.  7,  the  first  word  and  the  last,  "bear"  ''endure," 
have  only  slight  shades  of  distinction  ;  the  former  denoting 
the  quiet  bearing  of  present  ills  ;  the  latter,  the  patient  en- 
durance of  long  protracted  suffering.  Paul's  usage  of  this 
word  "  bear"  may  be  seen  in  1  Cor.  9  :  12,  and  1  Thess.  3  : 
1,  5.  In  saying — "Believeth  all  things,"  Paul  would  not 
teach  that  love  is  foolishly  credulous,  but  only  that  it  is 
trustful ;  has  no  heart-antagonisms  against  truth,  of  the 
sort  which  makes  it  congenial  to  a  selfish  soul  to  disbelieve 
and  reject  the  truth. — "  Hopetli  all  things,"  in  the  sense 
apparently  of  being  hopeful  for  the  best,  charitably  putting 
the  best  construction  upon  what  may  be  yet  doubtful. — 
A  sweet  spirit  throughout.  One  cannot  read  these  few 
graphic  touches  without  a  sense  that  this  spirit  of  love  is 
of  heaven,  not  of  earth  ;  of  God,  not  of  Satan  ;  is  wrought 
in  depraved  human  souls  by  tlie  truth  and  Spirit  of  God, 
and  never  otherwise. 

8.  Charity  never  failetli :  but  whether  iheix  he  proph- 
ecies, they  shall  fail ;  whether  there  he  tongues,  they  shall 
cease  ;  whether  there  he  knowledge,  it  shall  vanish  away. 

9.  For  Ave  know  in  part,  and  we  prophesy  in  part. 

10.  But  when  that  which  is  perfect  is  come,  then  that 
which  is  in  part  shall  be  done  away. 

11.  When  I  was  a  child  I  spake  as  a  child,  I  under- 
stood as  a  child,  I  thought  as  a  child :  but  when  I  became 
a  man,  I  put  away  childish  things. 

11.  For  now  we  see  through  a  glass,  darkly  ;  but  then 
face  to  face  :  now  I  know  in  part ;  but  then  shall  I  know 
even  as  also  I  am  known. 

13.  And  now  abideth  faith,  hope,  charity,  these  three ; 
but  the  greatest  of  these  is  charity. 

Love  is  not  short-lived — has  no  transient  mission,:  can 
never  fail  in  the  sense  of  closing  its  function  ;  finishing  its 
work ;  ceasing  to  live  and  to  bless.  On  the  contrary  love 
is  the  very  thing  that  must  endure  forever,  growing  only 
the  more  pure,  bright,  glorious  as  the  eternal  ages  roll  on. 

Measure  it  by  comparison  with  other  best  earthly  things; 
— e.  g.  with  prophecies — they  shall  be  abolished  :  with 
tongues  ; — these  special  gifts  shall  cease  ;  with  knowledge 
[science  in  the  Greek  sense] — this  too  shall  be  abolished. 
Paul  uses  the  same  verb  for  the  disappearance  of  '"■  know- 


I  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XIII.  259 

ledge,"  as  for  the  disappearance  of  prophecy — in  both  cases 
to  signify  that  these  are  thought  of  here  as  transient  gifts 
of  the  primitive  age.  That  is  to  say,  the  knowledge  here 
tliought  of  is  not  knowing  in  its  intrinsic  sense — is  not  tlie 
knowing  to  which  Paul  refers  in  v.  12 — '*'  Then  shall  I 
know  even  as  also  I  am  known." — In  v,  8  we  have  the  old 
word  "  whether  "  in  a  sense  mostly  obsolete,  Paul's  mean- 
ing being  this  :— If  we  have  prophecy.  .  .  if  we  have  tongues 
...  if  knowledge  etc. — each  and  all  of  these  are  transient. 
In  V.  9.  we  must  not  be  misled  into  the  notion  that  one 
part  is  knowledge  and  another  part  prophecy,  Paul's  mean- 
ing being  this — that  our  knowledge  is  imperfect,  and  so 
also  our  prophecy.  The  ''in  part"  is  contrasted  with 
"  that  which  is  perfect,"  as  in  v.  10.  The  things  that  are 
imperfect  are  present,  now ;  the  things  that  are  perfect 
are  yet  to  come  when  the  things  that  are  necessarily  imper- 
fect shall  have  passed  away.  —  Compare  with  this  the 
changes  in  the  human  development  from  childhood  to  man- 
hood. Childhood  has  its  own  speech,  understanding, 
thought ;  its  own  tastes,  amusements,  fancies,  pursuits  ; 
— which  manhood  puts  away  and  comes  into  a  new  sphere 
of  avocations,  aspirations,  joys,  life. 

Yet  another  illustration.  We  see  now  as  in  a  mirror, 
which  v,e,  seem  to  see  '•'  through"  because  the  object  ap- 
pears to  lie  back  of  its  surface  ;  and  we  see  but  dimly  as 
when  truth  seems  to  lie  in  enigma,  wrapped  in  darkness  ; 
but  then  we  shall  see  ''face  to  face,"  even  as  when  one  face 
looks  squarely  into  another  with  no  interposing  veil  be- 
tween.— Now  my  knowing  is  very  imperfect ;  but  then  I 
shall  know  clearly  even  as  I  am  known  perfectly.  These 
verbs  are  both  intensive. 

But  what  shall  we  say  of  this  comparison — "  I  shall 
know  as  I  am  known" — I  shall  be  known  by  others  per- 
fectly and  I  shall  myself  know  other  beings  with  the  same 
perfect  knowledge  ?  Does  he  assume  that  in  that  heavenly 
state,  all  thought,  all  mind,  all  character,  will  be  transpa- 
rent, having  no  possible  concealments,  but  open  to  the  per- 
fect vision  and  perfect  knowledge  of  all  ?  It  goes  far  to 
favor  this  that  perfect  purity  needs  no  concealments — has 
never  the  least  occasion  to  hide  a  thought  or  an  emotion  ; 
and  also,  that  a  sense  of  the  blessedness  of  all  the  holy  in 
heaven  must  be  immensely  heightened  by  such  knowing  of 
others  even  as  also  we  are  known  by  them. 


260  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XIII. 

The  powers  and  possibilities  of  "  the  spiritual  body  " — 
who  can  know  at  our  present  stand-point  of  vision  ?  But 
Paul  had  been  "caught  up  into  paradise " — besides  that 
inspiration  may  have  given  him  more  knowledge  of  the 
laws  and  modes  of  that  world  than  uninspired  men  have 
ever  seen  or  known. 

Here  we  have  these  three  christian  graces,  abiding 
through  our  present  sphere  of  existence — all  charming  and 
precious — faith,  hope,  love ;  but  of  these,  the  greatest, 
purest,  best,  is  love. 


-«<>!- 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

Paul  resumes  the  general  subject  discussed  in  chap.  12, 
viz,  the  exercise  of  the  extraordinary  spiritual  gifts  of  the 
primitive  age,  especially  as  related  to  the  edification  of  the 
church  and  to  the  order  and  method  of  proceeding  in  their 
church  assemblies.  He  gives  special  attention  to  the  bear- 
ing of  these  gifts  upon  edification,  applying  to  the  subject 
the  great  doctrine  of  the  law  of  love,  as  developed  in  chap. 
13.  That  chapter,  we  shall  see  prepares  for  this  ;  unfolds 
the  principles  that  should  govern  in  this. — In  cultured 
Corinth,  the  gift  of  tongues  attracted  undue  attention  and 
commanded  extravagant  admiration.  Of  course  the  tempta- 
tion was  very  great  to  over-estimate  its  value  and  to  make 
a  display  of  it,  to  the  neglect  of  prophecy — which  had  far 
more  vital  bearings  upon  christian  instruction  and  edifica- 
tion. Consequently  Paul  devotes  this  chapter  almost  ex- 
clusively to  setting  this  matter  right  in  their  esteem,  re- 
versing the  Corinthian  estimate,  and  putting  in  its  stead 
an  estimate  which  christian  love  makes  and  sustains. 

1.  Follow  after  charity,  and  desii-e  spiritual  gifts, 
but  rather  that  ye  may  prophesy. 

2.  For  he  that  speaketh  in  an  unknown  tongue  speak- 
eth  not  unto  men,  but  unto  God :  for  no  man  under- 
standeth  him  ;  howbcit  in  the  Spirit  he  speaketh  mys- 
teries. 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XIV.  261 

3.  But  lie  that  propliesieth  speaketli  unto  men  to  ed- 
ification, and  exhortation,  and  comfort. 

4.  lie  that  speaketh  in  an  unlcnoion  tongue  edifieth 
himself  ;  but  he  that  prophesieth  edifieth  the  church. 

5.  I  Avould  that  ye  all  spake  with  tongues,  but  rather 
that  ye  prophesied :  for  greater  is  he  that  prophesieth 
than  he  that  speaketh  with  tongues,  except  he  interpret, 
that  the  church  may  receive  edifying. 

Appropriately  Paul  begins  with  exhorting  them  to  cul- 
tivate christian  love  which  he  had  set  forth  so  beautifully 
and  forcibly  in  chap.  13  ;  and  then  adds — also  be  ye  zeal- 
ous for  spiritual  gifts — placing  prophecy  at  the  head  of 
them  all. — For,  it  is  a  great  mistake  to  put  tongues  first  in 
your  esteem,  because  if  ye  speak  in  a  language  which  no 
man  understands,  ye  speak  to  God  only.  Ye  may  say  very 
profound  things,  but  all  would  be  of  no  use  to  man.  On 
the  contrary,  prophesying  is  unto  men  (not  to  God  only), 
and  to  men  for  their  edification — which  should  be  your 
object.  Speaking  with  tongues  a  man  may  edify  himself, 
provided  he  understands  what  he  is  saying — which  seems 
to  be  assumed.  Prophesying  edifies  the  church,  for  this 
was  in  their  vernacular  tongue. — In  v.  5,  Paul  seems  to  as- 
sume that  speaking  with  tongues  was  not  only  a  popular 
but  an  agreeable  and  perhaps  jDersonally  useful  gift ;  but 
still  he  places  prophecy  above  it  for  its  greater  public 
utility,  unless  the  speaker  with  tongues  himself  interprets 
his  otherwise  unknown  words. 

6.  JSTow,  brethren,  if  I  come  unto  you  speaking  with 
tongues,  wliat  shall  I  profit  you,  except  I  shall  speak  to 
you  either  by  revelation,  or  by  knowledge,  or  by  prophe- 
sying, or  by  doctrine  ? 

7.  And  even  things  without  life  giving  sound, 
whether  pipe  or  harp,  except  they  give  a  distinction  in 
the  sounds,  how  shall  it  be  known  what  is  piped  or 
harped  ? 

8.  For  if  the  trumpet  give  an  uncertain  sound,  who 
shall  prepare  himself  to  the  battle  ? 

9.  So  likewise  ye,  except  ye  utter  by  the  tongue 
words  easy  to  be  understood,  how  shall  it  be  known  what 
is  spoken  'I  for  ye  shall  speak  into  the  air. 

12 


262  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XIV. 

10.  There  are,  it  may  be,  so  many  kinds  of  voices  in 
the  world,  and  none  of  them  is  without  signification. 

11.  Therefore  if  I  know  not  the  meaning  of  the  voice, 
I  shall  be  unto  him  that  speaketh  a  barbarian,  and  he 
that  speaketh  shall  he  a  barbarian  unto  me. 

12.  Even  so  ye,  forasmuch  as  ye  are  zealous  of  spir- 
itual gifts,  seek  that  ye  may  excel  to  the  edifying  of 
the  church. 

If  I  come  to  you  speaking  with  ever  so  many  unknown 
tongues,  what  does  it  all  avail  toward  profit  unless  I  give 
you  some  knowledge,  some  ideas  unknown  to  you  before  ? 
So  of  musical  instruments,  if  their  sounds  are  made  at  ran- 
dom with  no  regard  to  harmony,  what  is  the  use  ?  The 
trumpet  must  give  the  well  known  war-blast,  or  no  man 
will  feel  himself  summoned  to  arm  for  the  fight.  Thus 
your  spoken  words  must  be  understood,  or  ye  only  speak 
into  the  air,  throwing  your  words  away — a  proverbial  ex- 
pression.— These  words  and  their  sounds  may  have  a  rec- 
ognized meaning  some  where  in  the  world  ;  there  may  be 
people  on  the  face  of  tlie  earth  who  are  accustomed  to  those 
words  and  sounds  and  who  take  in  the  thought  they  rep- 
resent ;  but  if  the  people  who  sit  in  your  church  and  hear 
you,  know  them  not,  you  will  bo  only  as  a  barbarian  to 
them  and  they  to  you.  It  is  only  as  if  some  barbarian  (of 
Gaul  or  Parthia)  were  to  come  into  your  church  to  talk  to 
you  in  his  unknown  tongue. — Therefore,  let  your  zeal  for 
spiritual  gifts  be  directed  to  the  edification  of  the  church. 

13.  Wherefore  let  him  that  speaketh  in  an  unknown 
tongue  pray  that  he  may  interpret. 

14.  For  if  I  pray  in  an  unknown  tongue,  my  spirit 
prayeth,  but  my  understanding  is  unfruitful. 

15.  What  is  it  then  ?  I  will  pray  with  the  spirit,  and 
I  will  pray  with  the  understanding  also :  I  will  sing  with 
the  spirit,  and  I  will  sing  with  the  understanding  also. 

16.  Else,  when  thou  slialt  bless  with  the  spirit,  how 
shall  he  that  occupieth  the  room  of  the  unlearned  say 
Amen  at  thy  giving  of  thanks,  seeing  he  understandeth 
not  what  thou  sayest  ? 

17.  For  thou  verily  givcst  thanks  well,  but  the  other 
is  not  edified. 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XIV.  263 

From  this  passage  it  appears  that  prayer  and  song  as 
well  as  preaching  and  exhortation,  were  sometimes  in  a 
foreign,  nnknown  tongue.  Of  course  the  same  principles 
applied  in  these  exercises  as  in  speaking.  If  the  people 
could  not  understand  the  prayer  or  the  song,  they  could 
not  participate  in  the  exercise  to  any  profit.  Praying  in 
a  foreign  tongue  might  be  prayer  as  to  the  speaker — not  as 
to  the  hearer. 

18.  I  thank  my  God,  I  speak  with  tongues  more  tlian 
ye  all : 

19.  Yet  in  the  church  I  had  rather  speak  five  words 
with  my  understanding,  that  hy  my  voice  I  might  teach 
others  also,  than  ten  thousand  words  in  an  unknown 
tongue. 

20.  Brethren,  be  not  children  in  understanding :  liow- 
beit  in  malice  be  ye  children,  but  in  understanding  be 
men. 

Paul  would  bring  his  own  example  and  his  own  aspira- 
tions to  bear  upon  the  ambitious  Corinthians.  In  these 
gifts  he  surpassed  them  all ;  but,  the  pi'ofit  of  others  had 
been  and  should  be  his  supreme  purpose. — Brethren,  use 
the  common  sense  God  has  given  you.  Do  not  perpetrate 
the  folly,  to  which  ye  are  tempted,  of  making  a  vain  display 
of  these  gifts,  for  purposes  of  display  only.  So  doing,  ye 
would  be  mere  children  as  to  understanding  and  good 
sense.  I  would  have  you  children  only  in  the  point  of 
malice.  In  this  point,  the  simplicity  and  guilelessness  of 
the  child-nature  are  admirable  ;  but  in  matters  of  genuine 
understanding,  be  ye  men. 

21.  In  the  law  it  is  written.  With  men  of  other 
tongues  and  other  lips  will  I  speak  nnto  this  people ; 
and  yet  for  all  that  will  they  not  hear  me,  saith  the  Lord. 

22.  Wherefore  tongues  are  for  a  sign,  not  to  them 
that  believe,  but  to  them  that  believe  not :  but  prophe- 
sying serveth  not  for  them  that  believe  not,  but  for  them 
wdiich  believe. 

A  new  argument  is  drawn  from  the  Old  Testament: — 
here  called  "  the  law,"  though  the  passage  is  Isa.  (28  :  11) 
where  God's  speaking  to  his  people  in  a  foreign  tongue 
supposes  them  to  be  captives  in  a  foreign  land  where  they 


264  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XIV. 

would  hear  the  jargon  of  a  tongue  all  strange  to  their  ear. 
This  jargon  of  a  foreign  tongue  is  thought  of  as  God's  voice 
of  rebuke  in  the  form  of  the  national  affliction  of  a  sore 
captivity  ;  yet  even  this,  the  disobedient  people  would  not 
hear.  So  God  speaking  in  a  foreign  tongue  became  signifi- 
cant of  their  unbelieving  obduracy  ;  a  sign,  not  of  their 
faith,  but  of  their  unbelief  ;  and  in  its  suggestive  force  did 
not  specially  recommend  the  use  of  a  foreign  tongue. 

23.  If  therefore  the  whole  church  be  come  together 
into  one  place,  and  all  speak  with  tongues,  and  there 
come  in  those  that  are  unlearned,  or  unbelievers,  will 
they  not  say  that  ye  are  mad  ? 

24:.  But  if  all  j)rophesy,  and  there  come  in  one  that 
believeth  not,  or  one  unlearned,  he  is  convinced  of  all, 
he  is  judged  of  all : 

25.  And  thus  are  the  secrets  of  his  heart  made  mani- 
fest ;  and  so  falling  down  on  his  face  he  will  worship 
God,  and  report  that  God  is  in  you  of  a  truth. 

Ye  have  yet  another  test  of  the  relative  value  of  tongues 
and  of  prophecy  in  their  influence  respectively  upon  a 
heathen,  an  unbeliever  who  may  drop  into  your  religious 
meetings.  If  he  should  hear  you  all  speaking  in  strange 
tongues,  will  he  not  say  ye  are  mad,  have  lost  your  reason  ? 
But  if  ye  are  prohesying,  using  a  language  he  understands 
and  speaking  the  truth  impressively  with  the  spiritual 
earnestness  and  power  which  characterize  the  gift  of  proph- 
sying,  then  he  is  convicted  of  sin  ;  the  secret  things  of  his 
heart  are  brought  to  his  view  ;  he  says  "  God  is  in  this 
place  ;"  and  "this  is  his  voice  to  my  soul.'' — Such  results 
show  the  immense  superiority  of  prophesying  over  speaking 
with  tongues. 

2G.  How  is  it  then,  brethren  ?  when  ye  come  together, 
every  one  of  you  hath  a  psalm,  hath  a  doctrine,  hath  a 
tongue,  hath  a  revelation,  hath  an  interpretation.  Let 
all  things  be  done  unto  edifying. 

An  abundance,  not  to  say  super-abundance  of  spiritual 
gifts,  with  perhaps  some  degree  of  unhallowed  passion  for 
display,  created  a  necessity  for  regulation  and  even  restraint. 
In  their  religious  meetings  every  one  had  something  to 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XIV.  OQb 

bring  forward  :  let  tliem  take  care  that  all  be  for  the  gen- 
eral edification. 

27.  If  any  man  speak  in  an  unknoion  tongue,  let  it  he 
by  two,  or  at  the  most  hy  three,  and  that  by  course ; 
and  let  one  interpret. 

28.  But  if  there  be  no  interj^reter,  let  him  keep 
silence  in  the  church ;  and  let  him  speak  to  himself,  and 
to  God. 

29.  Let  the  prophets  speak  two  or  three,  and  let  the 
other  judge. 

30.  If  any  thing  be  revealed  to  another  that  sitteth 
by,  let  the  first  hold  his  peace. 

31.  For  ye  may  all  prophesy  one  by  one,  that  all  may 
learn,  and  all  may  be  comforted. 

32.  And  the  spirits  of  the  prophets  are  subject  to 
the  prophets. 

33.  For  God  is  not  the  author  of  confusion,  but  of 
peace,  as  in  all  churches  of  the  saints. 

There  was  special  danger  lest  speaking  with  tongues 
should  be  overdone.  Therefore  let  not  more  than  two  or 
at  the  most  three  speak  in  this  way,  and  let  these  speak, 
not  simultaneously,  but  in  succession  ;  and  let  some  one 
interpret, — of  course  this  interpreting  would  require  that 
only  one  should  be  speaking  at  the  same  time.  If  there 
were  no  one  to  interpret,  let  there  be  no  speaking  publicly  in 
a  strange  tongue  ;  let  the  brother  speak  within  himself  and 
to  God. — Under  a  similar  rule  and  for  the  same  general 
purpose,  let  not  more  than  two  or  three  prophesy,  and  this 
in  succession,  and  the  others  [plural  :  all  the  rest]  hear 
and  judge  ;  form  their  opinion  and  make  the  just  discrim- 
inations. If  a  fresh  revelation  should  be  made  to  any 
brother  sitting  and  hearing,  let  the  speaker  desist  and  give 
opportunity  for  this  fresh  revelation  to  be  brought  forward. 
Thus  all  whom  the  Spirit  might  impress  would  have  oppor- 
tunity to  speak  so  that  all  might  be  instructed  and  might 
receive  the  exhortation  [better  than  "  be  comforted"]. 

A  fact  of  great  importance  to  the  good  order  of  their 
Christian  assemblies  is  this  (v.  32) — that  the  prophets  have 
the  power  of  self-control ;  their  spiritual  utterances  are 
subject  to  their  own  discretion.  They  must  not  plead  that 
the  suggestions  or  impulses  of  the  Divine  Spirit  in  their 


266  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XIV, 

hearts  are  beyond  their  control  and  therefore  they  abso- 
lutely must  speak.  These  impulses  are  not  above  good 
rules  and  the  legitimate  demands  of  the  general  edification. 
God  is  never  responsible  for  confusion  in  church  assemblies, 
but  works  by  his  Spirit  unto  peace. 

This  principle  applies  in  all  ages,  certainly  not  less  to 
day  in  the  absence  of  extraordinary  sj^iritual  gifts,  than  in 
Corinth  when  and  where  those  gifts  were  specially  abundant. 

34.  Let  your  women  keep  silence  in  the  churches : 
for  it  is  not  permitted  unto  them  to  speak  ;  but  they  are 
commanded  to  be  under  obedience,  as  also  saith  the  law. 

35.  And  if  they  will  learn  any  thing,  let  them  ask 
their  husbands  at  home  :  for  it  is  a  shame  for  women  to 
speak  in  the  church. 

Tischendorf  locates  the  clause — "  As  in  all  the  churches 
of  the  saints  " — At  the  beginning  of  v.  34  and  not  at  the 
end  of  V.  33.  This  would  indicate  that  the  rules  in  regard 
to  women  were  prevalent  in  all  the  churches — a  point  in 
regard  to  which  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt.  Paul 
to  Timothy  (1  Tim.  2:  11-14)  holds  the  same  doctrine; 
gives  his  OAvn  opinion  very  explicitly  ;  and  sustains  it  there 
more  fully  than  here  by  arguments  drawn  from  the  creation 
and  the  fall. — The  reference  to  "the  law"  as  enjoining 
upon  women  a  state  "under  obedience"  is  apparently  to 
Gen.  3  :  16  ;  "And  he  shall  rule  over  thee."  Paul  evi- 
dently regards  this  state  as  incompatible  with  woman's 
public  speaking  in  their  church  assemblies.  If  this  were 
all  that  he  said  in  this  connection,  his  restriction  upon 
woman's  speaking  might  be  understood  to  be  limited  to 
such  speaking  as  involved  some  exercise  of  authority. — But 
he  proceeds  to  say — "  If  tliey  will  learn  any  thing  let  them 
ask  their  own  husbands  at  home  " — which  was  manifestly 
designed  to  preclude  them  from  asking  questions  in  the 
public  meeting. — Moreover,  the  reason  assigned — "  For  it 
is  a  shame  for  women  to  speak  in  the  church,"  rests  the 
case  upon  the  general  doctrine  of  propriety,  and  makes  no 
exceptions. 

On  this  passage,  the  first  business  of  the  interpreter  is 
to  develop  the  sense  of  Paul's  words  as  written  to  the  church 
at  Corinth — to  answer  the  question — AVhat  did  he  mean  to 
say  to  them  ;  what  rules  did  he  lay  down /or  them'? — As  to 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XIV.  267 

this  I  judge  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt.  He  meant 
to  forbid  women  to  speak  in  their  public  assemblies,  even 
to  the  extent  of  asking  questions. 

But  a  further  question  arises  ; — viz.  :  Is  this  a  rule  of 
universal  application,  to  be  applied  in  all  ages,  under  all 
the  varying  circumstances  of  culture,  intelligence,  piety  ? 
Or  may  it  be  relaxed  in  stringency  and  adjusted  to  the 
culture,  intelligence,  and  piety  of  women,  under  the  yet 
more  comprehensive  law,  so  constantly  put  in  this  chapter 
— All  things  for  edification? 

Two  historic  facts  deserve  consideration  here — viz.  : 

1.  That  in  the  Corinthian  church  assemblies,  the  ten- 
dencies to  disorder  were  exceedingly  great.  This  fact 
stands  out  strongly  throughout  this  chapter. — 'It  may  safely 
be  assumed  that  these  tendencies  would  have  been  greatly 
aggravated  if  women  had  been  allowed  and  accustomed  to 
speak  equally  with  men. 

2.  The  social  state  of  woman  in  Corinth  was  unques- 
tionably very  low.  I  speak  now  of  her  social  state  as  de- 
termined by  her  general  intelligence,  refinement,  culture, 
aiid  consequently  her  moral  force  in  society. — For  ages 
Corinth  had  been  notoriously  dissolute  in  morals — in  forms 
of  dissoluteness  which  fell  with  crushing  power  upon  wo- 
man. The  proud  intellectual  culture  of  Corinth  to  which 
history  does  pay  some  respect,  seems  to  have  left  woman 
out.  I  take  it  to  be  historically  certain  that  woman  stood 
on  a  much  lower  plane  in  Corinth  than  in  Judea,  idolatry 
and  its  vices  having  debased  her  in  Corinth,  while  even  the 
Jewish  religion  and  much  more  the  Christian,  had  elevated 
her  in  Judea.  Hence  the  women  who  come  to  the  surface 
in  the  gospel  history  are  among  the  noblest  specimens  of 
Avomanhood,  and,  be  it  noted,  their  testimony  to  the  cir- 
cumstances and  to  the  fact  of  Christ's  resurrection,  is  put 
on  record  with  the  assumption  of  its  full  equality  with  that 
of  the  other  sex. 

But  that  testimony,  from  the  Mary's,  and  from  the 
other  women,  Paul  prudently  refrains  from  adducing  in 
this  letter  to  Corinth.  In  Chapter  15  (as  we  shall  see),  he 
gives  a  remarkably  complete  resume  of  the  witnesses  to 
that  great  fact,  more  exhaustive  than  we  meet  with  any- 
where else  in  the  New  Testament — all  but  the  testimony 
of  the  women.  To  that  he  makes  not  the  slightest  allu- 
sion.    This  remarkable  omission  must  have  had  a  reason. 


268  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XIV. 

None  can  be  given  save  this  :  that  in  Corinth  their  testi- 
mony would  have  been  of  little  or  no  account. 

These  historic  facts  then  in  regard  to  woman's  social 
and  moral  status  in  Corinth  are  before  us  for  considera- 
tion in  regard  to  their  possible  bearings  upon  the  applica- 
tion of  Paul's  rule  in  our  own  times. 

The  question  of  woman's  eligibility  to  the  gospel  min- 
istry may  be  dismissed  in  the  outset.  On  general  princi- 
ples, that  question  should  be  considered  settled.  AVith 
much  good  material  at  his  command,  our  Lord  placed  no 
woman  in  the  body  of  the  chosen  twelve  ;  and  none  appa- 
rently among  the  seventy.  But  they  were  present  in  that 
wonderful  prayer-meeting,  which  continued  down  to  the 
great  Pentecost,  and  again,  in  that  of  Acts  12,  to  which 
Peter  introduced  himself.  Our  most  practical  question  is 
whether  her  voice  in  the  prayer-meeting,  which  is  virtually 
"  the  home  circle"  of  the  church,  shall  be  forbidden  or 
free  : — put  under  absolute  restriction,  or  left  under  the 
broader  principle — All  tilings  for  edification. 

36.  What !  came  the  word  of  God  out  from  you  ?  or 
came  it  into  you  onlj  ? 

37.  If  any  man  think  himself  to  be  a  prophet,  or 
spiritual,  let  him  acknowledge  that  the  things  that  I 
write  unto  you  are  the  commandments  of  the  Lord. 

38.  But  if  any  man  be  ignorant,  let  him  be  ignorant. 

39.  "Wherefore,  brethren,  covet  to  prophesy,  and  for- 
bid not  to  speak  with  tongues. 

40.  Let  all  things  be  done  decently  and  in  order. 

The  self-conceit  of  the  church  at  Corinth  calls  for  yet 
another  rebuke. — Would  ye  assume  (says  Paul)  that  yours 
is  the  mother  church  of  the  Christian  world  ?  Did  the 
gospel  go  forth  at  first  from  your  own  city  and  from  your- 
selves ?  Have  ye  not  the  least  respect  for  churches  much 
older  than  yours,  of  riper  experience  and  more  abundantly 
instructed  in  the  faith  and  order  of  the  gospel  ? 

If  any  man  among  you  assumes  to  have  pre-eminent 
wisdom  and  spirituality,  let  him  consider  my  credentials, 
and  let  him  acknowledge  my  superior  authority.  If  he 
will  ignore  all  this,  I  give  him  over  to  ignoi'ance. 

Finally,  brethren,  let  prophesy  stand  first  in  your  choice 
and  highest  in  your  aspirations.     As  to  the  gift  of  tongues. 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XIV.  269 

let  it  live  among  you  without  prohibition — which,  com- 
pared with  their  previous  estimate,  was  very  cool  com- 
mendation. 


-eOa — 


CHAPTER    XV. 

This  chapter  treats  but  one  subject — the  resurrection  ; 
first  proved  in  the  standard  case — the  resurrection  of 
Christ — from  the  Scriptures  and  from  the  testimony  of 
witnesses  ;  then  discussed  in  its  fundamental  relations  to 
the  gospel  scheme  and  to  the  sacrifices  and  perils  of  the 
Christian  life  ;  lastly,  defended  against  objections  to  it  as 
naturally  impossible ;  and  the  nature  of  the  resurrection 
body  illustrated. 

The  occasion  for  this  discussion  was  the  denial  of  any 
resurrection,  put  forth  by  some  among  the  brethren  in 
that  church — a  too  easy  concession  to  the  philosophical 
Greek  who  scouted  the  very  idea  that  the  dead  should  rise. 
We  may  remember  that  at  Athens  (Acts  17  :  18)  ''  cer- 
tain philosophers  encountered  Paul,  saying — He  seems  to 
be  a  setter  forth  of  strange  gods,  because  he  preached  to 
them  Jesus  and  the  resurrection."  Corinth  in  these  points 
was  a  second  Athens. 

1.  Moreover,  brethren,  I  declare  unto  jou  the  gospel 
which  I  preached  unto  you,  which  also  ye  have  received, 
and  wherein  ye  stand ; 

2.  By  which  also  ye  are  saved,  if  ye  keep  in  memory 
what  I  preached  unto  you,  unless  ye  have  believed  in 
vain. 

3.  For  I  delivered  unto  you  first  of  all  that  which  I 
also  received,  how  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins  accord- 
ing to  the  Scriptures ; 

4.  And  that  he  was  buried,  and  that  he  rose  again 
the  third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures ; 

Appropriately  Paul  begins  by  recalling  to  their  atten- 
tion the  doctrine  he  had  preached  to  them  in  the  founding 
of  their  church — their  faith  in  which  had  made  them  gos- 


270  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XV. 

pel  Christians,  imless  their  faith  should  prove  to  be  base- 
less— the  things  they  had  believed  being  found  false. — 
Two  points  were  thoroughly  fundamental ;  viz.  :  (a) 
That  Christ  died  for  our  sins  according  to  the  Scriptures  : 
— (b)  That  after  his  burial  he  rose  again  on  the  third  day, 
and  this  according  to  the  Scriptures. — Placing  these  two 
staple  facts  side  by  side  tacitly  assumed  that  they  were 
both  (perhaps  equally)  fundamental. 

5.  And  that  he  was  seen  of  Cephas,  then  of  the 
twelve : 

6.  After  that,  he  was  seen  of  above  five  hundred 
brethren  at  once ;  of  whom  the  greater  part  remain  unto 
this  present,  but  some  are  fallen  asleep. 

Y.  After  that,  he  was  seen  of  James;  then  of  all 
the  apostles. 

8.  And  last  of  all  he  was  seen  of  me  also,  as  of  one 
born  out  of  due  time. 

The  fact  of  Christ's  resurrection  was  of  a  sort  to  be 
proved  by  credible  witnesses.  Their  credibility  would  de- 
pend on  their  being  able  to  recognize  his  person,  and  then 
upon  their  being  of  sound  mind  and  truthful  in  character. 
These  witnesses  were  from  his  most  intimate  friends,  who 
had  known  him  longest  and  best.  Of  their  personal  in- 
tegrity and  veracity,  no  doubt  worthy  of  regard  has  ever 
been  raised.  That  they  were  not  enthusiasts,  bound  to 
make  out  a  strong  case,  is  put  as  thoroughly  outside  the 
pale  of  possibility  as  well  can  be.  For  though  Jesus  had 
more  than  once  foretold  to  them  his  resurrection,  they  had 
either  failed  to  understand  him,  or  they  thought  it  too  im- 
probable to  be  believed.  They  did  not  expect  it,  and  were 
justly  upbraided  by  Jesus  for  their  unbelief. — Then  the 
very  great  variety  of  circumstances  under  which  these  per- 
sonal appearances  took  place  ; — in  several  cases,  to  one 
alone  ;  then  to  two  ;  then  to  the  eleven  ;  and  finally,  to 
more  than  five  hundred  at  one  time  ;  sometimes  during 
the  day  ;  again,  in  the  evening  ;  once  at  the  table,  made 
known  to  them  in  the  breaking  of  bread: — in  general,  amid 
circumstances  best  adapted  to  revive  the  impressions  of 
scenes  before  his  death,  and  ensure  the  most  certain  recog- 
nition possible. — All  this  variety  of  circumstances,  most 
of  them  specially  favorable  for  id"entifying  his  person,  con- 


1  CORINTHIANS.-CHAP.  XV.  271 

Spire  to  make  out  the  most  perfect  testimony  which  a  case 
of  resurrection  can  admit.  There  is  little  occasion,  how- 
ever, to  enlarge  upon  this,  the  testimony  is  so  strong,  and 
in  its  circumstances  so  entirely  above  suspicion. — Paul 
makes  a  special  point  of  the  fact  that  the  greater  part  of 
the  five  hundred  who  saw  him  at  one  time  were  then  still 
living. 

As  usual  Paul  gives  to  Peter  his  Aramean  name  Cephas. 
Jesus  showed  himself  to  him  individually  (Luke  34:  34) 
for  reasons  of  tenderness  and  love  (we  must  suppose),  to 
reassure  him  of  forgiveness  for  his  great  sin.  The  special 
appearance  to  James  had  also  its  peculiar  reasons — easily 
understood  if  we  suppose  this  James  to  have  been  one  of 
his  lineal  brethren  who  are  referred  to  (John.  7:  5)  as  not 
then  believing  on  him  ;  who  were  passed  by  and  the  prefer- 
ence given  to  "  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved"  at  the  criti- 
cal moment  when  Jesus  had  occasion  to  commend  his  mo- 
ther to  some  faithful  friend  for  her  son  (John  19:  2G,  27). 
This  appearance  of  the  risen  Jesus  to  him  Avas  apparently 
the  eventful  moment  of  his  life,  for  he  appears  very  shortly 
after  (Acts  1:  14)  among  the  praying  group.  This  great 
transformation  was  due,  Ave  may  suppose,  to  the  wisdom 
and  the  loA'e  manifested  in  this  special  appearance  to  a 
lineal  brother,  ncA^er  won  to  faith  and  penitence  before. — 
Of  the  appearance  to  more  than  five  hundred,  this  is  our 
only  historic  notice.  Undoubtedly  it  Avas  in  Galilee  whither 
Jesus  had  directed  his  disciples  to  repair  from  Jerusalem — 
that  being  the  region  where  his  converts  Avere  most  numer- 
ous and  where  the  greatest  number  could  be  convened  who 
could  testify  to  his  resurrection  from  their  previous  per- 
sonal knowledge  of  him. 

Last  of  all,  he  appeared  to  Paul ;  but  this  was  long 
after  his  ascension. — "One  born  out  of  due  time"  means 
not  after  but  before  the  due  time — a  premature  birth — sug- 
gestive here  of  Paul's  Ioav  thought  of  himself. 

9,  For  I  am  the  least  of  the  apostles,  tliat  am  not 
meet  to  be  called  an  apostle,  because  I  persecuted  the 
church  of  God. 

10.  But  by  the  grace  of  God  I  am  what  I  am :  and 
his  grace  which  was  hestowed  upon  me  was  not  in  vain ; 
but  I  labored  more  abundantly  than  they  all :  yet  not  I, 
but  the  grace  of  God  which  was  with  me. 


272  1  COlllNTIIIANS.— CHAP.  XV. 

AYhatever  brings  up  to  Paul's  thouglit  his  persecuting 
life,  reveals  the  grief,  the  shame,  the  humiliation  of  his  soul 
in  the  recollection.  In  view  of  it  he  feels  himself  the  least 
of  all  the  apostles  and  all  unworthy  of  that  honored  name. 

But  that  which  humbled  him  so  deeply,  set  forth  most 
gloriously  the  riches  of  God's  grace.  To  that  grace  he 
owed  all  he  was — all  his  faith,  all  his  love,  all  his  zeal  for 
Christ,  all  his  labors,  and  all  their  usefulness. — His  words — 
"  more  abundantly  than  they  all " — may  perhaps  mean  only 
— more  abundantly  than  any  one  among  them  all.  This  on 
the  face  of  it  is  more  probable  than  that  he  should  com- 
pare his  labors  with  the  sum  total  of  all  theirs. 

11.  Therefore  whether  it  were  I  or  they,  so  we  preach, 
and  so  ye  believed. 

12.  Now"  if  Christ  be  preached  that  he  rose  from  the 
dead,  how  say  some  among  you  that  there  is  no  resur- 
rection of  the  dead  ? 

13.  But  if  there  be  no  resurrection  of  the  dead,  then 
is  Christ  not  risen  : 

11.  And  if  Christ  is. not  risen,  then  is  our  preaching 
vain,  and  your  faith  is  also  vain. 

15.  Yea,  and  we  are  found  false  witnesses  of  God  ; 
because  we  have  testified  of  God  that  lie  raised  nj)  Christ : 
whom  he  raised  not  np,  if  so  be  that  the  dead  rise  not. 

26.  For  if  the  dead  rise  not,  then  is  not  Christ  raised : 

17.  And  if  Christ  be  not  raised,  your  faith  is  vain  ; 
ye  are  yet  in  your  sins. 

All  alike,  I  and  they,  have  preached  the  resurrection  of 
Christ,  and  ye  have  believed  it.  But  if  this  be  so,  how  do 
ye,  (some  of  you)  say  there  is  no  resurrection  of  the  dead  ? 
— For  the  doctrine — no  resurrection — denies  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Christ,  and  this  makes  our  preaching  false,  and 
your  faith  a  vain  thing — i.e.  faith  in  a  falsehood.  Yea, 
and  all  we  apostles  are  proved  to  be  false  witnesses  as  to 
Crod,  because  we  have  solemnly  testified  in  respect  to  God 
that  He  had  raised  Christ  from  the  dead  ; — which  ho  cer- 
tainly had  not  done  if  really  the  dead  never  rise.* 

*  "  The  clause  — "  We  have  testified  of  God  "  [Gr.  kata  Theon]  ; 
some  critics  translate — against  God  ;  others,  in  respect  to  God.  The 
latter  I  prefer.  The  connection  requires  nothing  more  than  that 
they  testified  to  God's  raising  up  his  Sou. 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XV.  273 

Paul  labors  to  make  the  case  clear  and  strong  by  repe- 
tition, reiterating  the  point  that  if  Christ  had  not  risen,  all 
their  faith  in  him  was  vain  and  they  were  yet  in  their  sins 
unpardoned.  For  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  was  the  strong- 
est point,  the  main  point,  of  God's  endorsement  of  him 
as  his  Son.  If  this  failed,  not  only  did  the  divine  veracity 
fail  but  the  evidence  that  Jesus  came  from  God  failed,  and 
there  was  no  risen  Christ,  exalted  in  heaven  to  give  re- 
pentance to  Israel  and  remission  of  sin.  The  whole  gos- 
pel scheme  was  made  null  and  void  at  its  mo^t  vital  point. 

18.  Then  they  also  which  are  fallen  asleep  in  Christ 
are  perished. 

19.  If  in  this  life  only  we  have  hoj)o  in  Christ,  we 
are  of  all  men  most  miserable. 

20.  But  now  is  Christ  risen  from  the  dead,  and  be- 
come the  first-fruits  of  them  that  slept. 

The  points  made  here  have  force  more  because  they 
appeal  to  Christian  sympathy  than  because  they  heighten 
the  real  argument. — The  christians  of  Corinth  had  seen 
their  brethren  die  in  conscious  fellowship  with  Clu'ist  and 
had  laid  them  down  to  rest  in  Christian  graves,  as  they 
supposed  ; — but,  alas  !  if  there  be  no  resurrection,  they 
had  perished  hopelessly  and  forever  !  And  as  for  us  all — 
if  our  hope  in  Christ  reach  not  onward  beyond  this  life, 
we  are  of  all  men  to  be  pitied  most.  Think  how  much  we 
suffer  here  for  being  followers  of  Christ  !  Is  all  this  for 
nothing  beyond  ? — But  Christ  is  risen  from  the  dead — the 
first  fruits  of  all  that  sleep  in  him — they  being  sure  to 
follow  him  in  the  resurrection. 

21.  For  since  by  man  came  death,  by  man  came  also 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead. 

22.  For  as  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall 
all  be  made  alive. 

23.  But  every  man  in  his  own  order :  Christ  the  first 
fruits ;  afterward  they  that  are  Christ's  at  his  coming. 

By  one  man  Adam,  death  came  into  the  world  ;  so  also 
by  one  man,  Jesus  Christ,  shall  come  the  resurrection  of 
the  righteous  dead. — Paul's  course  of  thought  here  does 
not  include  the  resurrection  of  the  wicked ;  does  not 
require  the  least  allusion  to  them,  or  any  expression  of  his 


274  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XV. 

views  on  the  question  of  their  resniTection.  He  is  think- 
ing of  Christ's  personal  resurrection  as  guaranteeing  the 
resurrection  of  his  own  people.  This  is  shown  conclu- 
sively, both  in  the  previous  context  (v.  20) — Christ  risen 
and  become  the  first  fruits  of  them  that  have  slept  in  him; 
and  also  in  the  following  context, — ''Afterward,  they  that 
are  Christ's  at  his  coming." — Therefore,  the  attempt  to 
force  V.  22  into  service  to  prove  that  all  mcuihind  will  be 
made  alive  in  Christ  to  their  eternal  salvation,  is  utterly 
indefensible — -a  flagrant,  violent  distortion  of  plain  words, 
wresting  them  from  their  intent,  and  putting  a  sense  upon 
them  which  the  writer  manifestly  never  thought  of. 

2-i.  Then  cometh  the  end,  when  he  shall  have  deliv- 
ered up  the  kingdom  to  God,  even  the  Father ;  when 
he  shall  have  put  down  all  rule,  and  all  authority  and 
power. 

25.  For  he  must  reign,  till  he  hath  put  all  enemies 
under  his  feet. 

26.  The  last  enemy  that  shall  be  destroyed  is  death. 

27.  For  he  hath  j)ut  all  things  under  his  feet.  But 
when  he  saith,  All  things  are  put  under  him,  it  is  man- 
ifest that  he  is  excepted  which  did  not  put  all  things 
under  him. 

28.  And  when  all  things  shall  be  subdued  unto  him, 
then  shall  the  Son  also  himself  be  subject  unto  him  that 
p)ut  all  things  under  him,  that  God  may  be  all  in  all. 

This  passage  has  acknowdedged  difficulties. — The  points 
to  be  carefully  considered  are — "The  end,"  of  what? 
Delivered  up  ^vhat  "kingdom?"  and  in  what  sense  does 
the  Saviour  himself  "  become  subject  to  the  Father  ?" 

The  key  to  the  sense  of  the  passage  turn  specially  upon 
its  conception  of  Christ's  reign  over  earth  and  hell,  and  to 
a  certain  extent,  over  heaven  also,  as  Redeemer  of  lost 
men,  and  Mediator  for  his  peoi^le.  It  conceives  of  su- 
preme control  over  all  things  that  stand  in  any  relation  to 
this  work,  as  put  into  his  hands  for  the  achievement  of 
the  great  ends  of  redemption  for  his  people.  The  sweep 
of  this  dominion  includes  all  the  providential  agencies  of 
our  world  ;  a  dominion  over  mortality  and  death  to  which 
there  is  special  reference  here  ;  a  power  higher  than 
Satan's;  and  finally,  a  dominion  which  includes  the  ser- 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XV.  275 

vice  of  the  holy  angels.  Opposing  forces  are  placed  within 
his  sway  to  be  put  down  until  all  enemies  are  beneath  his 
feet.  Subsidiary  forces  are  under  his  direction  for  use 
towards  the  ends  of  his  reign. — Such  is  the  '•'kingdom" 
of  which  this  passage  speaks,  committed  by  the  Father  to 
the  Son  for  the  great  purposes  of  redemption  in  our  world. 
It  is  brought  to  view  here  because  of  its  close  relation  to 
the  resurrection.  In  and  by  means  of  the  resurrection, 
death,  Christ's  last  enemy,  is  abolished.  As  to  his  re- 
deemed people,  there  is  no  more  death,  not  even  mortality. 

In  vs.  27,  28,  Paul  sustains  his  main  doctrine — all 
things  placed  under  the  dominion  of  the  Son — by  appeal 
to  Scripture,  i.e.  to  Ps.  110:  1,  and  8:  6  ; — the  former 
most  obviously  Messianic,  the  words  of  the  Father  to  the 
Son  :  the  latter  less  obviously  so,  yet  clearly  embracing  the 
Son  as  brought  into  the  human  family  by  his  incarnation. 
• — Paul  makes  a  special  point  of  excepting  the  Father  from 
the  sway  of  this  otherwise  universal  dominion — an  excep- 
tion obviously  necessary  because  this  grant  of  power  came 
from  his  own  hand,  and  in  the  nature  of  the  case  must 
make  an  exception  of  the  Giver — the  very  source  of  all  this 
power. 

"When  this  mediatorial  work  shall  have  been  accom- 
plished, the  redeemed  all  brought  home  to  their  everlast- 
ing mansions,  Satan  and  all  his  sway  put  down  beneath 
the  Great  Conqueror's  feet,  mortality  and  death  as  to  his 
people  abolished  forever — what  then  ?  Especially,  what 
shall  then  ensue  in  respect  to  this  special  grant  of  power 
and  dominion  for  the  purposes  of  this  Mediatorial  king- 
dom ? 

The  doctrine  of  this  passage  seems  to  me  to  be  this — 
that  in  so  so  far  as  pertains  to  this  special  tuork — it  having 
been  finally  accomplished,  the  Great  Agent,  the  Mediator- 
ial King,  returns  his  commission  to  the  Supreme  Power 
from  whom  it  came.  Having  surrendered  this  commission, 
he  takes  a  position  of  comparative  subordination  [rather 
than  proper  "subjection  "]  to  that  Supreme  One,  the  In- 
finite Father,  who  is  all  in  all.  The  power  lodged  in  his 
hands  as  Mediatorial  King  is  thenceforward  less  prominent 
before  the  intelligent  universe  than  it  had  been  while  this 
work  was  in  progress.  The  Father  was  in  no  respect  less 
than  supreme  during  the  active  exercise  of  this  Mediatorial 
dominion;  nor  is  He  more  than  Supreme  after  its  termi- 


278  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XV. 

nation  ;  but  as  manifested  before  the  intelligent  universe, 
the  supreme  sway  of  the  Father  was  less  in  the  foreground 
during  the  Son's  active  agency,  and  comes  forward  more 
fully — most  fully  we  may  say — after  the  completion  of  his 
work  and  the  visible  surrender  of  his  special  commission. 
Of  course  these  great  facts  must  be  revealed  and  put  before 
finite  minds  with  a  certain  degree  of  accommodation  to 
finite  modes  of  thought. 

The  reader  should  not  fail  to  note  that  the  absolute 
termination  of  Christ's  mediatorial  work  carries  with  it  of 
necessity  the  end  of  redemptive  work  for  the  lost  in  perdi- 
tion. It  is  simply  certain  that  there  can  be  no  more  offers 
of  pardon  through  Christ  in  that  realm  of  the  lost.  When 
Christ  shall  have  delivered  back  this  kingdom  to  God  the 
Father,  the  provisions  made  in  and  through  Christ  for  par- 
don and  salvation  will  cease  to  be  operative  ;  will  be  p)rom- 
ised  no  more  ;  will  be  possible  to  sinners  no  longer. 

Moreover,  the  j^ossible  application  of  his  redemptive 
work  will  be  precluded,  not  only  as  to  sinners  of  our  world 
who  have  had  their  final  sentence,  but  as  to  supposable 
fallen  beings  of  other  worlds,  whether  of  races  already  ex- 
isting or  yet  to  be  created.  According  to  Paul,  this  great 
scheme  of  redemption  will  have  fully  and  finally  done  its 
work,  never  to  be  resumed  again. 

29.  Else  what  shall  they  do  which  are  baptized  for 
the  dead,  if  the  dead  rise  not  at  all  ?  why  are  they  then 
baptized  for  the  dead  ? 

This  passage  has  been  interpreted  variously,  the  ablest 
critics  admitting  that  in  our  present  knowledge  of  the 
customs  at  Corinth,  no  absolute  certainty  as  to  its  precise 
significance  can  be  reached. 

The  exigencies  of  the  context  make  it  reasonably  cer- 
tain that  this  being  "  baptized  for  the  dead  "  involved  spec- 
ial peril ;  and  moreover  peril  of  a  sort  for  which  no  com- 
pensation could  be  thought  of  unless  there  were  a  resurrec- 
tion from  the  dead.  It  would  be  folly  to  expose  one's  self 
to  this  peril  unless  the  righteous  dead  were  to  rise. 

In  my  view  the  most  satisfactory  construction  is  this  : 
— that  the  dead  here  thought  of  are  fallen  martyrs  who 
met  death  for  Christ's  name  ;  that  their  death  is  supposed 
to  result  in  new  converts,  either  won  to  the  Christian  faith 
by  their  heroism  and  patience,  or  by  the  fresh  inspirations 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XV.  277 

which  their  martyrdom  breathed  into  their  surviving  breth- 
ren, intensifying  their  gospel  labors  ;  and  that  these  fresh 
converts  arc  thought  of  as  pressing  forward  like  brave 
soldiers  on  the  battle-field  to  fill  the  ranks  of  their  fallen 
comrades.  Thus  they  are  baptized  for  the  dead  in  the  ob- 
vious sense  of  avowing  their  faith  in  Jesus  in  order  to  fill 
the  place  of  the  fallen — a  manifestation  of  Christian  hero- 
ism which  would  have  no  good  reason  if  the  Christian  dead 
wei-e  never  to  rise. — This  construction  seems  to  answer 
well  to  the  usage  of  these  words,  and  to  require  us  to  as- 
sume only  what  is  historically  probable.  Other  interpreta- 
tions— of  which  there  are  legion — have  seemed  to  me  quite 
unsatisfactory  ;  and  are  therefore  omitted. 

The  verse  resumes  the  argument  from  v.  23,  having  no 
reference  to  the  intervening  verses  (24-28). — The  three 
oldest  manuscripts  [S.  V.  A.]  concur  in  making  the  last 
clause — '"'baptized  for  them"  rather  than  "bajitized  for 
the  dead "' — the  sense,  however,  being  the  same  in  either 
case. 

30.  And  why  stand  we  in  jeopardy  every  lioiir  ? 

31.  I  protest  by  your  rejoicing  which  I  have  in  Christ 
Jesus  onr  Lord,  I  die  daily. 

32.  If  after  the  manner  of  men  I  have  fought  with 
beasts  at  Ephesus,  w-hat  advantageth  it  me,  if  the  dead 
rise  not  ?  let  ns  eat  and  drink ;  for  to  morrow  we  die. 

33.  Be  not  deceived :  evil  communications  corrapt 
good  manners. 

34.  Awake  to  righteousness,  and  sin  not ;  for  some 
have  not  the  knowdedge  of  God :  I  speak  this  to  your 
shame. 

And  why  do  we  [Apostles]  stand  in  jeopardy  of  our 
lives  every  hour  ? — a  case  obviously  analogous  to  that  of 
men  baptized  for  the  dead. — In  v.  31,  "Your  rejoicing" 
is  the  rejoicing  I  have  in  you — as  Paul  himself  explains — 
"which  I  have  in  Christ" — i.  e.,  in  reference  to  you. — 
The  better  textual  authorities  insert  the  word  "'  brethren  :" 
— "by  the  rejoicing,  brethren,  which  I  have."  The  point 
of  this  solemn  affirmation  is — that  my  perils  amount  to  a 
daily  death,  with  no  security  for  my  life — in  daily  peril  of 
being  stricken  down  by  mob  violence.  What  would  life 
be  to  me  if  there  were  no   resurrection  ? — If   (humanly 


278  1  CORINTHIANS-— CHAP.  XV, 

speaking)  I  have  f  ouglit  with  wild  beasts  at  Ephesus — with 
men  savage  as  tigers — a  reference  possibly  to  that  teri'ific 
mob  which  Luke  has  described  (Acts  19).  If  there  be  no 
resurrection,  why  shall  we  not  say,  in  words  taken  from 
Isaiah's  description  of  the  sensualists  of  his  day  {'Z2  ;  13) — 
"Let  us  eat  and  drink;  for  to-morrow  we  die." — The 
words  of  V.  33  are  supposed  to  be  borrowed  from  the  Greek 
poet  Menander,  apparently  proverbial — used  by  Paul  with 
a  slight  modification  of  the  sense  to  his  purposes.  Menan- 
der meant — associations  with  bad  men  vitiate  morals  and 
deprave  character :  Paul,  that  bad  doctrine,  like  this  de- 
nial of  the  resurrection,  would  deprave  their  piety.  His 
argument  would  suggest  that  such  bad  doctrine  would 
smite  down  Christian  faith,  endurance,  self-sacrifice,  and 
put  an  end  to  glorious  martyrdom  for  Jesus'  name. 

"Awake  "  (v.  34),  is  not  from  sleep  but  from  the  torpor 
of  intoxication  ;  and  do  this  righteojcsly — Paul's  word  being, 
like  this,  an  adverb.  Their  case  was  like  that  of  men  stu- 
pefied with  strong  drink.  And  be  careful  to  sin  no  more 
— in  this  way.  For  some  of  you  have  very  erroneous  no- 
tions of  God  and  of  his  revealed  truth,  being  not  merely 
without  the  right  views,  but  under  the  positive  power  of 
the  wrong — e.  g.  ye  deny  the  resurrection  of  the  body. 

35.  But  some  man  will  say,  How  are  the  dead  raised 
up  ?  and  with  what  body  do  they  come  ? 

86.  Thou  fool,  that  which  thou  so  west  is  not  quick- 
ened, except  it  die  : 

37.  And  that  which  thou  sowest,  thou  sowest  not 
that  body  that  shall  be,  but  bare  grain,  it  may  chance  of 
wheat,  or  of  some  other  grain : 

38.  But  God  givetli  it  a  body  as  it  hath  pleased  him, 
and  to  every  seed  his  own  body. 

Here  opens  a  passage  of  thrilling  interest  and  of  su- 
preme importance  to  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection,  its 
object  being  to  meet  the  philosophical  objection  made  to 
this  doctrine  ;  to  obviate  difficulties  founded  on  misconcep- 
tion ;  and  to  settle  certain  very  essential  points  pertaining 
to  the  resurrection  body  and  to  its  relations  to  the  present 
body. 

The  cardinal  objection  here  put  and  met  is — How  can 
the  dead  be  raised  ?    Their  bodies  perish ;  they  undergo 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XV.  279 

decomposition  and  disappear  utterly.  With  what  body 
then  do  the  dead  come  back  to  life  again  ? 

"  Thou  fool " — rebukes  the  objector  for  ignoring  most 
obyious  analogies  ; — e.  g.  of  grain  seed  buried  in  the  earth. 
No  such  seed  is  quickened  into  the  new  plant  unless  it  first 
die  ; — not  in  tliis  case  in  the  sense  that  the  vital  germ 
dies  ;  but  that  the  matter  of  the  seed  planted  undergoes 
decomposition  ;  passes  through  a  chemical  change,  and  so 
becomes  food  to  be  taken  up  and  assimilated  for  the  new 
plant.  The  case  has  been  familiar  to  observing  minds  ever 
since  the  world  began.  Death  works  toward  and  unto  new 
life.  The  seed  buried  in  earth  rises  again.  Thou  sowest 
not  the  identical  matter  which  is  to  be  the  new  plant,  cer- 
tainly not  much  of  it.  Thou  sowest  only  a  kernel,  and 
God  makes  of  it  a  living  plant — stalk,  leaf,  and  manifold 
return  of  the  precious  grain.  "  God  giveth  it  a  body  as  it 
hath  pleased  him  " — according  to  a  uniform  method  which 
we  are  wont  to  call  '"'a  law  of  nature" — a  phrase  which 
means  only  the  way  that  pleases  God. 

"  To  every  seed  its  own  body" — gives  the  vital  fact  that 
GocVs  method  ineserves  identity — not  identity  of  matter, 
but  identity  of  kind,  of  germs ;  and  in  the  case  of  the  hu- 
man body,  identity  ot  person,  so  that  the  body  given  to  me 
at  my  resurrection  shall  be  my  own  body  and  not  an- 
other's. 

39.  All  flesli  is  not  the  same  flesii :  but  there  is  one 
kind  of  iiesh  of  men,  another  flesli  of  beasts,  another  of 
fishes,  and,  another  of  birds. 

40.  There  are  also  celestial  bodies,  and  bodies  ter- 
restrial :  but  the  glory  of  the  celestial  is  one,  and  the 
glory  of  the  terrestrial  is  another. 

41.  There  is  one  glory  of  the  sun,  and  another  glory 
of  the  moon,  and  another  glory  of  the  stars ;  for  one  star 
differeth  from  another  star  in  glory. 

42.  So  also  is  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  It  is  sown 
in  corruption,  it  is  raised  in  incormption : 

43.  It  is  sown  in  dishonor,  it  is  raised  in  glory  :  it  is 
sown  in  weakness,  it  is  raised  in  power : 

44.  It  is  sown  a  natural  body,  it  is  raised  a  spiritual 
body.  There  is  a  natural  body,  and  there  is  a  spiritual 
body. 


280  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XV. 

Another  point  of  surpassing  importance  is  aflirmed  and 
richly  ilhistrated  here.  All  flesh  is  not  the  same.  Flesli 
may  be  flesh,  and  yet  one  variety  of  it  may  be  very  un- 
like another.  We  have  illustrations  of  tliis  everywhere  in 
nature.  Men,  beasts,  fishes,  birds,  all  have  flesh,  yet  each 
in  wide  diversity.  In  the  visible  heavens  above  us  are 
many  bodies — sun,  moon,  stars,  each  very  unlike  the  others 
in  splendor — the  difl:erence  even  between  the  stars  com- 
pared with  each  other  being  manifestly  great.  So  is  the 
resurrection  body  compared  with  the  earthly.  A  body 
made  for  the  heavenly  world  must  be  very  unlike  the  body 
that  is  adapted  to  this  earthly  state.  Weakness,  frailty, 
mortality,  give  character  to  the  one  ;  incorruption,  power, 
never  waning  vigor  and  splendor  glorify  the  other.  Both 
are  "  body  ;  "  both  have  matter  for  their  base,  their  sub- 
stance ;  both  are  material  as  opposed  to  spiritual,  immate- 
rial ;  and  yet  the  qualities  of  this  resurrection  body  are  in 
some  points  so  remarkably  analogous  to  the  qualities  of 
spirit  that  Paul  describes  it  by  the  compound  phrase, — 
"  spiritual  body."  No  other  reasonable  sense  can  be  found 
in  this  phrase  except  this ; — a  body  having  in  its  nature 
so  much  that  resembles  spirit — so  many  of  the  high  and 
noble  qualities  characterizing  spirit,  that  this  word  may 
appropriately  be  subsidized  to  express  most  suggestively 
the  humanly  strange  and  to  us  yet  unknown  nature  and 
capabilities  of  the  resurrection  body. 

The  possibilities  of  an  imm.ensely  higher  glory  and 
power,  even  in  matter  which,  chemically  tested  shall  have 
the  very  same  elements,  are  finely  illustrated  by  comparing 
a  lump  of  charcoal  with  an  equal  weight  of  diamond — say 
the  weight  of  the  Koh-i-noor.  The  chemist  will  prove  to 
us  by  combustion  that  these  two  substances  are  not  only 
both  matter,  but  both  the  very  same  matter,  both  being  as 
nearly  pure  carbon  as  is  possible  for  chemistry  to  find  or 
to  produce.  Burn  them  one  after  another  in  the  same 
crucible  and  you  get  the  same  results,  in  essentially  the 
same  amounts — so  much  pure  carbon.  But  think  of  the 
difference  in  glory  !  The  one  is  black,  dull,  almost  foul  ; 
we  are  wont  to  think  it  defiling  to  the  touch.  It  is  far 
enough  from  splendor  and  glory.  It  reflects  back  no  bril- 
liancy.    Men  think  it  a  very  cheap  and  dirty  thing. 

But  the  Koh-i-noor — how  do  princes  and  kings  vie  with 
each  other  to  biiv  it  with  the  wealth  of  a  kingdom  ;  to 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XV.  281 

wear  it  as  the  glory  of  a  royal  crown  ! — In  hardness  and 
cutting  power,  the  artist  tells  us  nothing  equals  it.  In 
durability  it  defies  change  while  the  world  shall  stand.  In 
splendor  and  glory,  it  readily  eclipses  all  the  gems  of  the 
earth.  Perish  does  it  ?  Eather  it  is  a  fit  symbol  of  the 
body  which  ''sown  in  corruption  is  raised  in  incorruption  ; 
sown  in  dishonor  (dull,  unlovely  charcoal)  is  raised  in  glory, 
resplendent,  dazzling,  suggestive  of  our  own  unfading  and 
beauteous  immortality. 

Another  illustration  comes  to  our  hand,  good  for  set- 
ting forth  not  only  the  same  point  as  above — which  is,  that 
matter  of  the  same  nature,  chemically  tested  may  appear 
in  forms  and  with  qualities  inexpressibly  moi'e  beautiful 
and  perfect ;  but  also  this  further  point — that  the  more 
glorious  shall  be  embosomed  and  concealed  in  the  humbler 
and  be  developed  out  of  it. 

A  very  familiar  illustration  is  the  caterpillar — in  its 
larva  state  a  crawling  and  very  unattractive  object ;  but, 
as  is  well  known,  there  will  emerge  from  this  very  coarse 
exterior,  a  brilliant  butterfly,  charming  the  eye  with  its 
beauteous  colors  ;  surprising  us  with  its  powers  of  motion 
on  the  wing  and  its  adaptations  to  a  new  sphere  of  activi- 
ties. It  has  dropt  off  the  old  encasement ;  is  no  longer 
bound  down  to  earth  ;  but  mounts  up  into  a  new  realm  of 
life  and  motion  in  the  atmosphere.  It  has,  Ave  may  say, 
forgotten  its  old  life  and  can  never  return  to  it  again.  It 
retains  no  visible  traces  of  its  old  humble  home.  It  has 
put  off  one  marked  form  of  the  earthly,  and  put  on  another, 
far  more  splendid.  We  will  not  say  its  new  powers  are 
angelic  ;  they  are  only  a  visibly  manifest  advance  in  that 
direction  ;  a  useful  symbol  or  type,  therefore,  of  the  capa- 
bilities of  this  dull,  heavy  matter  of  our  bodies  to  take  on 
new  forms  that  shall  make  us  "  equal  to  the  angels." — The 
special  i3oint  of  this  illustration  (as  said  above)  is  that  we 
know  absolutely  that  the  butterfly  begins  its  life  in  the 
caterpillar.  It  was  imprisoned  there  while  in  its  larva 
state  it  was  crawling  slowly  on  the  ground  ;  and  yet  in  due 
time,  under  fixed  laws  of  God's  hand  in  nature,  it  emerged 
into  its  new  realm  of  existence,  shining  and  soaring  with 
capabilities  it  could  never  have  dreamed  of  while  it  lay  in 
that  close,  dark  prison,  with  not  even  a  prophecy  to  any 
mortal  eye  of  the  powers  which  were  to  be  its  future  in- 
heritance. 


283  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XV. 

45.  And  so  it  is  written,  The  first  man  Adam  was 
made  a  living  soul ;  the  last  Adam  icas  made  a  quicken- 
ing spirit. 

46.  Howbeit  that  was  not  first  which  is  spiritual, 
but  that  which  is  natural ;  and  afterward  that  which  is 
spiritual. 

47.  The  first  man  is  of  the  earth,  earthy :  the  second 
man  is  the  Lord  from  heaven. 

48.  As  is  the  earthy,  such  a7^e  they  also  that  are 
earthy :  and  as  is  the  heavenly,  such  are  they  also  that 
are  heavenly. 

49.  And  as  we  have  borne  the  image  of  the  earthy, 
we  shall  also  bear  the  image  of  the  heavenly. 

50.  Now  this  I  say,  brethren,  that  flesh  and  blood 
cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God ;  neither  doth  cor- 
ruption inherit  incorru^Dtion. 

These  verses  add  yet  another  fact  as  to  the  resurrec- 
tion body  ;  viz.  that  it  shall  bear  the  image  of  Christ's 
risen  glorious  body.  It  not  only  owes  its  own  resurrection 
to  the  vivifying  power  of  Christ — "a  quickening  Spirit" — 
but  it  is  to  bear  the  image  of  that  heavenly  body. — This 
doctrine  is  elsewhere  put  in  most  explicit  terms  ;  e.g.  (Phil. 
3:  21).  "  Who  shall  change  our  vile  body  that  it  may  be 
fashioned  like  unto  his  glorious  body  according  to  the 
working  whereby  he  is  able  to  subdue  all  things  unto  him- 
self." 

Higher  glory  [of  body]  than  this  no  christian  aspira- 
tions need  ever  seek;  better  security  for  it  than  his  prom- 
ise, it  were  abusive  to  ask  ;  a  better  illustration  of  Avhat 
the  resurrection  body  of  the  saints  will  be  we  have  not  the 
least  occasion  to  desire. 

These  facts  and  illustrations  bring  us  to  the  negative 
conclusion  put  by  Paul  (v.  50)  : — '•'  Flesh  and  blood  cannot 
inherit  the  kingdom  of  God,"  neither  can  corruption  in- 
herit incorruption.  The  "  flesh  and  blood "  nature  is 
dropped  in  the  grave  ;  the  corruption  disappears  in  the 
marvellous  transfiguration,  and  only  the  glory  remaineth. 
But  the  glory  does  remain  and  does  blaze  out  in  majesty 
and  splendor  all  unearthly  ! 

51.  Behold,  I  shew  you  a  mystery ;  We  shall  not  all 
sleep,  but  we  shall  all  be  changed. 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XV.  283 

52.  In  a  momeut,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  at  tlie 
last  trump :  for  the  trumpet  shall  sound  and  the  dead 
shall  be  raised  incorruptible,  and  we  shall  be  changed. 

53.  For  this  corruptible  must  put  on  incorruption, 
and  this  mortal  7nust  put  on  immortalitj". 

This  mystery  is  not  necessarily  incomprehensible  when 
once  revealed,  but  is  beyond  the  limits  of  human  knowl- 
edge except  through  revelation  :  and  moreover  was  a  fact 
not  then  previously  revealed  so  fully  as  in  this  passage. — 
The  word  •'  we  "  [""  we  shall  not  all  sleep  ;  "  "we  shall  be 
changed  "]  need  not  be  pressed  so  as  to  imply  that  Paul 
expected  this  event  during  his  personal  life-time. 

If  he  did  so  expect,  he  was  mistaken  ;  if  he  so  hoped,  his 
hopes  were  vain.  But  Paul's  reputation  ought  to  be  spared 
this  wound  ; — at  least  such  a  stab  ought  not  to  be  thrust  at 
him  without  better  reason  than  this  usage  of  the  word 
"we."  Rather  it  should  be  considered  a  convenient 
method  of  distinguishing  between  those  who  shall  have 
died  before  that  trumpet-blast,  and  those  who  shall  be 
living  then.  When  Paul  was  writing,  the  "we"  in- 
cluded the  writer  and  his  living  readers,  so  that  if  the  final 
day  had  broken  upon  them  before  they  had  finished  read- 
ing this  epistle,  they  would  have  been  the  "changed" 
ones.  So  whenever  the  day  shall  come,  the  then  living 
generation  will  be  in  the  class  of  the  "changed." 

It  should  be  noticed  that  the  word  "'  changed,"  applies 
only  to  those  then  living,  for  the  dead  will  have  had  their 
"change"  before  and  so  be  raised  "incorruptible." 

51.  So  when  this  corruptible  shall  have  put  on  incor- 
ruption, and  the  mortal  shall  have  put  on  immortality, 
then  shall  be  brought  to  pass  the  saying  that  is  written, 
Death  is  swallowed  up  in  victory. 

55.  O  death,  where  is  thy  sting  ?  O  grave,  where  is 
tliy  victory  ? 

56.  The  sting  of  death  is  sin ;  and  the  strength  of 
sin  is  the  law. 

57.  But  thanks  he  to  God,  which  giveth  us  the  vic- 
tory through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

When  this  stupendous  transformation  shall  have  passed 
over  the  righteous,  there  will  be  a  perfect  fulfillment  of 


284:  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XV. 

those  words  (Isa.  25:  8) — ■•'•'Death  is  swallowed  up  in  vic- 
tory ;  " — is  victoriously  conquered  ;  its  long  dreaded  power 
titterly  and  forever  broken  down,  annihilated. — The  words 
of  V.  55  are  from  Hos.  13 :  14,  with  slight  variations.  The 
better  textual  authorities  have  "death"  in  the  second 
clause  as  well  as  the  first ; — "  0  death,  where  is  thy  vic- 
tory ?  0  Death,  where  is  thy  sting?"  Doubtless  death 
leads  the  thought  throughout  the  passage,  appearing  in 
both  the  preceding  and  the  following  context. — The  strain 
is  one  of  most  exultant  triumph  over  the  great  terror  of  our 
race. — It  is  however  only  sin  that  makes  death  terrible  ;  and 
the  great  strength  of  sin  has  been  in  the  law  which  men  have 
broken, the  knowledge  of  which  brings  into  human  souls  the 
clearest  convictions  of  sin,  and  also  greatly  enhances  their 
guilt. — These  points  are  pertinent  here  because  it  is  in  the 
light  of  them  that  we  appreciate  the  worth  of  salvation 
through  Christ.  Through  Him  we  have  victory  over  sin  ; 
and  this  carries  in  itself  victory  over  death  also.  Sin  being 
once  subdued  and  put  away.  Death  has  no  terror.  It  be- 
comes a  slain  foe,  over  .whose  fall  wesingpeans  of  triumph 
— as  here, 

58.  Therefore,  my  beloved  brethren,  be  ye  steadfast, 
Tiumovable,  always  abounding  in  the  work  of  the  Lord, 
f orasmucli  as  ye  know  that  your  labor  is  not  in  vain  in 
the  Lord. 

This  exhortation  has  a  grand  basis  in  the  christian  doc- 
trine of  the  resurrection.  With  this  grand  view  of  our 
glorious  eternal  future,  we  may  see  most  clearly  and  feel 
most  impressively  that  honest  labor  for  Christ  can  never 
be  in  vain.     Eeward  is  sure,  glorious,  everlasting  ! 

The  discussion  of  this  doctrine  of  resurrection  will  bo 
incomplete  if  passed  without  some  notice  of  the  law  of 
connection  between  the  body  that  dies  and  the  body  that 
rises.  How  is  this  connection  secured  ?  What  sort  of  link 
binds  the  one  to  the  other  ? 

1.  The  theory  that  at  least  some  minute  germ  of  the 
present  body  will  resist  dissolution  and  become  the  life-germ 
for  the  resurrection  body,  must  be  abandoned.  It  may 
seem  to  be  supported  if  not  even  proved  by  the  analogy  of 
the  germ  of  the  seed  corn  ;  but  analogies  are  not  necessarily 
perfect.  This  one  may  be  only  approximate. — Under- 
standing by  present  body,  this  flesh  and  blood  habiliment 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XV.  285 

of  the  soul,  this  '•'  body"  which  is  tangible  to  the  senses, 
and  appreciable  to  our  physical  tests,  our  science  seems  to 
decide  most  conclusively  that  nothing  of  it  escapes  the 
universal  law  of  mortality.     It  all  returns  to  dust. 

How,  then,  is  identity  preserved  ?  How  comes  it  to 
pass  that,  in  any  proper  sense,  the  resurrection  body  which 
I  am  to  have  is  my  body,  sustaining  some  positive  and 
real  connection  with  my  present  material  being,  such  as 
the  idea  of  resurrection  must  legitimately  involve  ? 

In  reply,  I  can  speak  only  hypothetically,  suggesting 
what  seems  to  me  supposable  and  possible,  so  far  as  the 
subject  lies  within  our  present  knowledge. 

There  are  two  theories,  either  of  which  seems  to  me 
supposable.  Between  these  our  choice  must  apparently 
lie. 

(a.)  The  theory  that  this  link  of  connection  is  in  the 
human  soul  alone,  and  depends  on  the  power  of  spirit  over 
matter.  There  may  reside  in  spirit  the  life-germ — the 
life-power — which  assimilates  to  its  purposes  the  matter 
requisite  to  form  its  physical,  material  tenement.  For 
aught  we  can  know,  this  may  be  the  case.  The  power  of 
spirit  over  matter  we  know  to  be  very  great.  We  do  not 
know  but  it  may  include  this  great  function — the  absolute 
taking  unto  and  upon  itself  the  body  which  is  to  be  its 
abode  and  to  become  its  organ  of  communication  with 
other  beings  and  with  the  material  universe.  Under  this 
theory  there  may  be  profound  philosophy  as  well  as  sub- 
lime poetry  in  those  lines  of  Montgomery  : 

"  Hark  !  the  judgment  trumpet  calls  ; 

Soul ;  rebuild  thy  house  of  clay  ; — 
Immortality  thy  walls  ; — 

And  Eternity  thy  day." 

Paul  touches  this  great  question  only  in  these  words 
(v,  38)  :  "  But  God  giveth  it  a  body  as  it  hath  pleased  him, 
and  to  every  seed  its  own  body."  Thus  Paul  begins  and 
ends  by  resolving  the  question  into  the  divine  pleasure. 
But  God's  pleasure  is  only  another  name  for  a  natural  law. 
'•■  Natural  law"  is  our  current  phrase  for  God's  established 
mode  of  operation  ;  or,  in  yet  other  words,  for  his  pleas- 
ure— for  the  way  of  working  that  pleases  him.  In  the  case 
of  the  grain-seed,  God's  pleasure  is  that  this  connecting 
link  which  ties  the  old  seed  to  the  new  plant  with  its  seed 
13 


286  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XV. 

shall  be,  to  onr  surface  view,  a  material  germ  ;  but  beneath 
this  must  lie  a  life-principle  or  power  which  no  chemistry 
of  ours  can  reach.  We  toucli  the  bottom  of  our  knowledge 
when  we  say,  God  operates  that  also  as  it  hath  pleased 
him.  How  perfect  the  analogy  may  be  between  this  life- 
princi^Dle  in  the  grain-seed,  and  some  corresponding  soul- 
power  in  man,  who  can  tell  ? 

As  to  this,  our  theory  rests  in  the  assumption  of  a  soul- 
power  over  matter  which,  at  the  divine  word,  shall  sum- 
mon to  itself  the  matter  requisite  to  the  resurrection  body, 
shaped,  constituted  and  adjusted  to  this  individual  soul, 
so  that  identity  between  the  resurrection  body  and  this 
earthly  one  shall  be  essentially  like  that  between  the  same 
human  body  at  fifty  and  at  ten  years  of  age.  This  identity, 
we  know,  does  not  lie  in  its  being  the  same  matter.  It  does 
lie  in  its  being  matter  assimilated  under  the  same  deter- 
mining soul  [or  life]  power.  It  turns,  therefore,  ulti- 
mately on  the  power  of  soul  [or  life]  over  matter.  Hence 
the  soul  remaining  the  same  and  preserving  its  personal 
identity,  will  assimilate  to  itself  a  body  which  shall  have 
identity  with  the  previous  body,  because  determined,  and 
we  may  say,  made  by  the  same  soul. 

(b.)  The  alternative  theory  is  that  intermediate  between 
the  purely  spiritual  soul  of  man  and  his  material  body  of 
flesh  and  blood,  there  is  even  now  a  semi-spiritual  body, 
too  etherial  in  nature  to  be  reached  by  any  of  our  chemical 
tests — too  indestructible  to  be  touched  by  disease,  frailty, 
mortality  ;  sustaining  we  know  not  what  relations  here  in 
the  way  of  vital  connection  between* the  real  soul  and  this 
mortal  body  ;  but  ready  to  assume  palpable  relations  to  the 
soul  at  the  moment  of  death,  and  to  supply  to  it  its  need- 
ful organs  of  communication  with  other  beings  and  with 
the  universe  when  this  body  of  flesh  shall  have  gone  to  its 
dust. 

On  this  theory  our  word  descriptive  of  the  state  between 
death  and  the  resurrection — ''  disembodied  " — must  be  qual- 
ified so  as  to  deny  only  this  coarse  body,  and  not  the  sup- 
posed etherial  one  which  takes  on  visible  manifest  functions 
as  soon  as  the  outer  husk  drops  off'. 

The  reader  should  understand  that  this  is  advanced 
only  as  a  mere  theory,  a  supposable  hypothesis.  Our  sci- 
ence is  quite  unable  to  disprove  it,  for  the  appliances  which 
supply  to  science  the  facts  for  its  use,  will  bring  back  no 


I  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XV.  287 

report  from  this  supposed  semi-spiritual  encasement  of  the 
soul. 

If  this  supposition  be  the  real  fact,  then  this  etherial 
body  may  itself  develop  into  the  resurrection  body  at  the 
last  trump.  But  of  the  process  we  can  know  absolutely 
nothing,  and  if  the  question  be — How  does  the  resurrection 
body  itself  differ  from  this  body  of  the  intermediate  state, 
and  from  this  germinal,  half-developed,  semi-spiritual  body 
of  the  present  life,  I  know  not  who  can  tell.  To  push  such 
questions  is  to  beat  about  in  the  total  darkness  of  mystery. 

Scripturally  considered,  Paul  has  said  Just  one  word 
which  seems  (it  may  be  only  in  the  seeming)  to  conflict  with 
it,  viz.,  (2  Cor.  5:  2) — ''Clothed  upon  with  our  house 
luMcli  is  from  heaven."  This  '"house"  would  seem  to  be 
the  habiliment  [clothing]  of  the  soul  in  the  intermediate 
state.  So  considered,  it  is  said  not  to  develop  itself  out  of 
a  less  manifest  but  real  house  already  belonging  to  the  soul 
before  death,  but  to  "he  from  heaven."  Apparently,  this 
supposed  present  semi-spiritual  house — a  link  between  pure 
spirit  and  gross  flesh  and  blood — was  unknown  to  Paul. 
His  system  seems  to  provide  no  place  for  it. 

For  reasons  which  these  remarks  will  sufficiently  suggest 
I  cannot  regard  it  with  favor. 

Upon  the  state  intermediate  between  death  and  the 
resurrection,  only  a  dim  and  feeble  light  from  revelation 
has  fallen.  This  subject  will  naturally  come  up  for  more 
full  consideration  under  2  Cor.  5  :  1-8.  Here  it  is  in  place 
for  remark,  only  because  of  its  relation  to  the  resurrection. 

The  scriptures  have  spoken  with  no  uncertain  voice  as 
to  our  spiritual  relations  to  Christ,  and  (as  it  would  seem) 
to  our  fellow-saints,  and  apparently  to  the  holy  angels  also  ; 
— that  we  "  are  present  with  the  Lord  ";  that  we  shall  see 
him  as  he  is  ;  that  we  shall  be  perfectly  like  him  because 
we  shall  behold  his  glory  so  clearly,  so  perfectly,  so  impres- 
sively. And  as  to  the  society  of  other  kindred  spirits — 
that  we  are  not  solitary  there  ;  that  the  society  of  the  holy 
will  fully  satisfy  the  demands  of  our  social  nature  and  of 
our  loving  souls. — All  these  points  are  made  so  plain  as  to 
leave  no  ground  for  doubt. 

But  when  we  ask  whether  the  saints  in  that  state  have 
any  material  organs  whatever  as  instruments  of  thought  or 
of  communication,  or  of  sense  ;  or  whether  they  are  simply 
immaterial  spirits,  having  no  relation  to  matter  however 


2SS  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XV. 

refined — we  are  painfully  ignorant.  How  pure  spirits, 
utterly  apart  from  any  material  habiliment,  can  hold  their 
own  in  space  ;  can  have  a  recognized  identity  ;  can  have 
communion  of  thought  and  emotion  with  other  spirits 
similarly  unembodied — how  very  little  we  can  yet  know  ! 
— Are  spiritual  beings  dependent  on  a  material  organism 
for  their  intercommunion  Avith  each  other ;  for  their  knowl- 
edge of  the  material  universe — that  is  to  say,  for  their  in- 
telligent study  of  God  in  and  through  his  works  ;  for  their 
eternal  progress  in  the  new  sphere  of  their  being  ; — of  such 
things  we  shall  know  more  when  we  pass  beyond  the  vail 
that  now  shuts  off  those  worlds  from  our  view. 

One  fact  in  regard  to  our  relations  to  matter  is  put  be- 
yond question  ;  viz.,  that  the  resurrection  body  with  its 
untold  capabilities  will  be  an  advance  not  only  upon  our 
present  mode  of  existence,  but  upon  that  of  the  intermed- 
iate state.  Inspired  men  looked  away  to  this  resurrection 
state  as  the  consummation  of  Christian  hope  and  aspiration. 

We  cannot  read  their  words  without  the  impression 
that  in  God's  great  scheme  there  is  a  place  and  a  use  for 
material  organisms  as  the  habiliment  of  finite  souls,  to  con- 
stitute their  best  possible  media  of  communication  with 
the  material  universe  ;  with  all  the  vast  and  glorious  works 
of  God  ;  and  with  other  beings  of  kindred  intellectual 
powers  and  like  moral  character.  The  perfection  of  the 
spiritual  body  will  be  essential  (apparently)  to  the  highest 
perfectibility  of  our  eternal  being  and  blessedness. 

In  conclusion,  I  trust  the  reader  will  hold  it  well  in 
mind  that  Vaefact  of  the  resurrection  is  in  no  wise  depen- 
dent upon  the  certainty  or  perfection  of  any  particular 
theory  we  may  favor  as  to  the  laws  of  its  production  or 
the  methods  of  its  operation.  Let  it  suffice  that  God 
giveth  to  his  saints,  each  his  own  body  "As  it  hath 
pleased  him.*'  The  divine  law  of  operation  under  which 
the  one  body  for  me  shall  be  really,  and  in  its  proper  sense, 
identically  my  own,  it  is  not  vital  to  my  faith  in  the  resur- 
rection that  I  should  know.  I  can  rest  in  the  word  of  the 
Lord  and  in  the  infinite  resources  of  power  which  lie  back 
of  this  revealed  truth,  pledged  to  make  the  jjromisegood.* 

*  An  essay  appended  to  this  volume  win  discuss  the  question 
whether  the  scriptures  teach  the  doctrine  of  two  resurrections,  a 
first  and  a  second  ;  or  of  only  one,  entirely  general,  of  both  the 
riofhteous  and  the  wicked. 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XV.  289 


CIIAPTEE   XVI. 


Here  are  miscellaneous  concluding  topics. 

1.  Now  concerning  tlie  collection  for  tlic  saints,  as  I 
have  given  order  to  the  churches  of  Galatia,  even  so 
do  je. 

2.  Upon  the  first  day  of  the  week  let  every  one  of 
you  lay  by  him  in  store,  as  God  hath  prospered  him,  that 
there  be  no  gatherings  when  I  come, 

3.  And  when  I  come,  whomsoever  ye  shall  approve 
by  your  letters,  them  will  I  send  to  bring  your  liberality 
unto  Jerusalem. 

4.  And  if  it  be  meet  that  I  go  also,  they  shall  go 
with  me. 

This  collection  was  in  behalf  of  the  poor  saints  of  Jeru- 
salem, in  which  Paul  felt  a  profound  interest.  It  comes  to 
light  again  in  his  second  epistle  to  Corinth  (8:  4  and  9:1, 
2)  :  also  in  his  epistle  to  the  Eomans  (15:  25-28),  writ- 
ten somewhat  later  than  this  time  and  at  Corinth  ;  also 
in  Acts  24:  17. — Apart  from  the  intrinsic  interest  which 
Paul  felt  in  this  collection,  out  of  sympathy  with  the  suf- 
fering poor,  we  may  suppose  him  moved  with  a  noble  de- 
sire to  overcome  their  prejudice  against  himself  and  win 
them  to  a  better  feeling  toward  Gentile  Christians  by  pour- 
ing in  upon  them  the  bread  they  needed  in  their  hunger — 
benefactions  from  the  very  christian  brethren  whom  it  had 
been  so  hard  for  them  to  embrace  in  warm  Christian  sym- 
pathy and  fellowship.  Paul  taught — "  Love  your  enemies." 
It  is  worth  our  while  to  notice  that  he  practiced  it  as  well. 

"Upon  the  first  day  of  the  week,"  let  these  contribu- 
tions be  gathered  in,  from  each  as  the  Lord  may  have 
prospered  him.  The  time  named  locates  their  stated 
periods  of  christian  Avorship,  on  the  Lord's  day,  the  chris- 
tian Sabbath.  This  example  suggests  the  beautiful  pro- 
priety of  making  benefactions — gifts  for  benevolent  pur- 
poses— a  constant  concomitant  of  worship.  To  worship 
God,  and  to  manifest  our  loving  sympathy  with  his  poor, 
should  legitimately  go  hand  in  hand.  The  worship  should 
inspire  to  the  giving  ;  the  giving  should  attest  the  ,sincer- 
ity  of  the  worship. 


290  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XVI. 

"We  notice  that  Paul  did  not  propose  to  have  the  hand- 
ling of  this  money  himself.  He  knew  Corinth  too  well  to 
exjjose  himself  to  their  jealousy,  or  to  their  suspicion  of 
tampering  with  public  monies.  No  ;  they  must  choose 
their  own  men  to  take  charge  of  this  remittance.  He 
would  give  them  letters  of  introduction  to  Jerusalem  ;  and 
if  the  Corinthian  brethren  preferred  it,  he  would  go  with 
them  personally.  But  not  a  penny  of  their  contribution 
would  he  touch  himself. — Pei'haps  his  example  should  not 
be  exalted  into  a  universal  rule  ;  but  it  should  certainly  be 
the  rule  wherever,  as  here,  there  may  be  special  liability 
to  suspicion.  '  It  is  better  no  doubt  as  a  general  rule  that 
gospel  ministers  should  be  careful  to  avoid  all  occasion  of 
suspicion  as  to  their  personal  honesty  in  the  handling  of 
church  funds. 

5.  Now  I  will  come  unto  you,  when  I  shall  pass 
tlirough  Macedonia ;  for  I  do  pass  through  Macedonia. 

6.  And  it  may  be  that  I  will  abide,  yea,  and  winter 
with  you,  that  ye  may  bring  me  on  my  jonrney  whith- 
ersoever I  go. 

7.  For  I  will  not  see  yon  now  by  the  way ;  but  I 
trust  to  tarry  a  while  with  you,  if  the  Lord  permit. 

8.  But  I  will  tarry  at  Ephesus  until  Pentecost. 

9.  For  a  great  door  and  eifectual  is  opened  unto  me, 
and  there  are  many  adversaries. 

These  plans  for  future  missionary  travel  and  labor,  Paul 
seems  to  have  formed  as  other  missionaries  do,  according 
to  their  best  judgment — subject  to  change  and  sometimes 
to  disappointment.  There  were  cases  in  which  Paul  received 
special  direction  from  God  by  vision  ;  but  ordinarily,  he 
seems  to  have  been  left,  as  other  men  are,  to  his  own  wis- 
dom and  to  prayer  for  God's  providential  guidance. 

10.  Now  if  Timotheiis  come,  see  that  he  may  be 
with  you  without  fear  :  for  he  worketh  the  work  of  the 
Lord,  as  I  also  do. 

11.  Let  no  man  therefore  despise  him  :  but  conduct 
him  forth  in  peace,  that  he  may  come  unto  me :  for  I 
look  for  him  with  the  brethren. 

Timothy  was  young,  and  perhaps  specially  youthful  in 
appearance.     Paul  elsewhere  implies  a  certain  liability  in 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XVI.  291 

this  direction  to  less  esteem  than  his  real  merits  should 
command  (1.  Tim.  4:  12). 

12.  As  toiicliing  our  brother  Apollos,  I  greatly  de- 
sired him  to  come  unto  you  with,  the  brethren :  but  his 
will  was  not  at  all  to  come  at  this  time ;  but  he  will 
come  when  he  shall  have  convenient  time. 

Apollos  had  been  in  Corinth  before,  as  we  infer  from 
the  circumstance  that  a  party  there  were  appropriating  his 
name  as  their  leader  (1:  12).  Whether  this  fact  was 
among  the  reasons  why  he  did  not  care  to  go  then,  we 
cannot  say  ;  but  it  is  pleasant  to  notice  that  Paul  had  not 
the  least  fear  to  have  him  go — not  the  least  jealousy  lest 
he  would  foment  party  strife  or  head  some  sectional  inter- 
est against  himself. 

13.  Watch  ye,  stand  fast  in  the  faith,  quit  you  like 
men,  be  strong. 

14.  Let  all  your  things  be  done  with  charity. 

The  counsels  and  exhortations  grouped  in  these  verses 
seem  to  contemplate  persecution,  creating  a  special  demand 
for  moral  heroism.  Play  the  man — the  hero ;  be  strong 
against  every  foe. — And  let  everything  ye  do  be  done  in 
love.  The  word  love  gives  the  sense  here  far  better  than 
'•'charity."  The  internal  history  of  the  church  suggests 
the  urgent  call  for  such  an  admonition. 

15.  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  (ye  know  the  house  of 
Stephanas,  that  it  is  the  hrst  fruits  of  Acliaia,  and  that 
they  have  addicted  themselves  to  the  ministry  of  the 
saints,) 

16.  That  ye  submit  yourselves  unto  such,  and  to 
every  oiie  that  helpeth  with  %ts^  and  laboureth. 

17.  I  am  glad  of  the  coming  of  Stephanas  and  For- 
tunatus  and  Achaicus :  for  that  which  Avas  lacking  on 
your  part  they  have  supplied. 

18.  For  they  have  refreshed  my  spirit  and  yours  : 
therefore  acknowledge  ye  them  that  are  such. 

The  house  [household]  of  Stephanas  appears  in  Chap. 
1:  16,  as  the  family  whom  Paul  personally  baptized,  appa- 
rently the  first  or  near  the  first  fruits  of  his  labors  in 
Corinth.     Paul  commends  them  to  the  esteem,  confidence 


292  1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XVI. 

and  co-operation  of  the  church.  He  has  been  made  glad 
as  well  as  relieved  in  respect  to  personal  wants  by  the 
arrival  of  the  brethren  named  ; — but  it  should  be  noticed, 
they  brought  no  gift  from  the  Corinthian  church.  Eather 
their  personal  gifts  supplied  the  lack  from  that  church. 
To  the  shame  of  Corinth,  be  it  hinted  to  them,  they  had 
given  Paul  nothing — had  never  sent  anything  to  him  ;  in 
fact,  had  manifested  so  much  jealousy  and  readiness  to 
slander  him,  that  he  could  not  wisely  and  safely  take  any 
thing  from  them  even  if  they  had  offered  it.  (Sec  on 
Chap  9:  15-18). 

19.  The  churches  of  Asia  salute  you.  Aquila  and 
Priscilla  salute  you  much  in  the  Lord,  with  the  church 
that  is  in  their  house. 

20.  All  the  brethren  greet  jon.  Greet  ye  one 
another  with  a  holy  kiss. 

21.  The  salutation  of  me  Paul  with  mine  own  hand. 

22.  If  any  man  love  not  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  let 
him  be  Anathema.     Maranatlia. 

23.  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  he  with  you. 

24.  My  love  he  with  you  all  in  Christ  Jesus.     Amen, 
The  first  epistle  to  the  Corinthians  was  written  from 

Phillippi  by  Stephanas,  and  Fortunatus,  and  Achaicus, 
and  Timotlieus. 

Aquila  and  Priscilla  had  lived  at  Corinth,  for  it  was 
there  that  Paul  formed  their  acquaintance  (Acts  18.'  1-3), 
and  became  an  inmate  of  their  family  and  a  business  part- 
ner in  their  occupation.  At  this  writing  they  were  with 
Paul  at  Ephesus,  where  again  their  house  was  the  place  of 
worship  for  a  precious  group  of  Christian  people. 

To  Paul's  usual  salutation  with  his  own  hand,  he  here 
appends  the  very  striking  words  of  v.  22,  which  seem  to 
have  welled  up  from  his  very  heart,  not  because  he  loved 
the  sinner  who  would  not  love  Christ  less,  but  because 
he  loved  the  Lord  Jesus  so  much  more,  and  had  so 
keen  and  deep  a  sense  of  the  ineffable,  almost  infinite  guilt 
of  not  loving  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Ah,  indeed  ;  that 
man  who  ivill  not  love  the  Lord  Jesus  deserves  to  be  anath- 
ema ! — A  full  pause  should  follow  "  anathema."  The 
words  "  Maran-atha"  are  not  any  part  of  the  first  sentence, 
but  are  a  distinct  declaration,  signifying,  The  Lord  conieth. 


1  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XVI.  293 

The  words  are  Aramean.  They  give  special  solemnity  to 
the  clause  preceding.  I  say  this  with  an  impressive  sense 
of  the  momentous  truth  that  the  Lord  is  coming,  and  then 
He  will  remember  those  who  have  guiltily  withheld  from 
him  all  the  love  of  their  hearts  ! 

In  closing  this  epistle,  Paul's  overflowing  soul  would 
bless  all  that  love  the  Lord  Jesus  ;  but  how  could  he  an- 
nounce blessings  for  those  who  love  him  not ! 

For  all  who  worthily  bear  the  Christian  name  he  in- 
vokes the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  them 
sends  assurances  of  his  own  personal  love  in  the  bonds  of 
Christ — this  for  his  farewell  word: — Amen. 


SECOND  EPISTLE  TO  THE 
CORINTHIANS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

As  to  date,  this  Eijistle  seems  to  have  followed  the  first 
at  an  interval  of  not  many  months,  supposably  from  spring 
to  autumn  of  A.  D.  57.  The  first  epistle  having  been 
written  at  Ephesus  in  the  spring,  he  left  Ephesus  during 
the  summer  ensuing  and  went  into  Macedonia.  There  in 
the  course  of  the  autumn  he  wrote  this  second  Epistle,  and 
in  the  winter  following  yisited  Corinth  in  person  and  there 
wrote  his  epistle  to  the  Galatians. 

As  to  jy/rtce  where  written,  the  epistle  itself  shows  him 
to  have  been  in  Macedonia.     (See  7  :  5  and  8  :  1  and  9  :  2.) 

The  occasion  and  suhjcct-mattcr  of  this  epistle  should 
receive  attention. — This  second  epistle  is  an  outgrowth  of 
the  first.  If  there  had  been  no  occasion  for  the  first  there 
would  have  been  no  second.  That  is  to  say,  this  second 
treats  of  a  part  (not  all)  of  the  same  topics  that  occasioned 
the  first  and  that  constituted  its  themes  of  discussion. 
Some  of  those  themes  do  not  reappear  in  this  epistle  ;  e.  g. 
here  is  no  definite  discussion  of  their  sectarian  divisions ; 
nor  of  the  general  subject  of  fornication,  licentiousness  and 
marriage  ;  nor  of  the  doctrine  of  conscience  as  to  meats 
offered  to  idols,  nor  of  •'  spiritual  gifts  "  and  the  proper 
estimate  and  use  of  them  ;  nor  of  the  laws  of  propriety  in 
church  assemblies,  and  the  abuse  of  the  Lord's  supper  : 
nor  of  the  resurrection. 

But  the  case  of  incest  reappears  in  this  epistle  and  much 
is  said  which  indicates  that  Paul  felt  a  painful  solicitude 
over  the  result  of  that  case  of  discii^line  and  great  joy  upon 
its  successful  issue.  Much  also  appears  here  bearing  upon 
that  small  party  in  Corinth  who  traduced  Paul's  authority, 
resisted  his  influence,  slandered  his  good  name  and  labored 


INTRODUCTION.  295 

to  thwart  his  policy.  It  becomes  very  plain  here  that  this 
opposition  bore  heavily  upon  Paul's  heart.  It  drew  forth 
many  words  of  self-vindication  ;  much  that  we  find  nowhere 
else  as  to  his  personal  trials  in  his  missionary  life  ;  his  self- 
sacrificing  labors ;  the  spirit  that  animated  them  and  his 
sustaining  hope  of  blessed  reward  from  his  divine  Master. 
— Comprehensively,  these  points  in  their  various  bearings 
form  the  staple  subjects  in  this  epistle. 

Besides  these  we  have  the  charitable  collection  for  the 
poor  saints  at  Jerusalem,  reaj^pearing  chaps.  8  and  9. — and 
in  the  closing  chapters,  yet  more  in  the  line  of  self- 
vindication  against  his  traducers  and  severe  rebuke  of  their 
sjDirit  and  measures. 

One  special  lesson  from  this  epistle,  sometimes  becoming 
painfully  necessary  to  be  studied  in  this  world  of  varied 
moral  trial — is  the  spectacle  of  a  nobly  good  man,  self- 
sacrificing,  devoted  and  wise  in  an  eminent  degree,  yet 
opposed,  persecuted,  maligned,  tortured,  subjected  to  q, 
wearing,  wasting  conflict  and  antagonism  in  the  bosom  of 
one  of  his  own  beloved  churches,  and  bearing  up  against 
this  terrible  onslaught  of  envy,  hate  and  meanness,  with 
much  of  the  meekness  and  patience  of  his  Master.  The 
case  should  be  made  a  special  study.  Fortunately  it  is 
exceptional  in  the  Christian  life  ;  yet  Paul  has  not  been 
the  only  sufferer  from  such  calumny. 


SECOND  EPISTLE  TO  THE 
CORINTHIANS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

After  the  usual  address  Paul  breaks  forth  in  a  strain 
of  thanksgiving  to  God  for  the  great  joy  and  consolation 
of  his  heart  over  the  tidings  that  had  come  to  him  of  the 
better  spiritual  state  of  his  beloved  Corinthians  (v.  1-7)  ; 
then  passes  on  to  speak  of  his  perils  of  life  in  Asia,  from 
whicli  God  had  delivered  him  in  answer  (it  might  be)  to 
their  prayers  (v.  8-11):  next,  of  his  work  among  themselves 
(v.  12-14  ;  of  his  plans  for  coming  to  see  them  which  had 
been  modified,  yet  not  from  any  fickleness  of  mind  but  for 
valid  reasons  (v.  15-18);  God's  word  and  promises  are  stable, 
not  changeful  without  reason  (v.  19,  20);  reposing  on  the 
power  and  veracity  of  God  through  his  Spirit  (v.  21,  22)  ; 
Why  he  did  not  come  to  Corinth  as  he  had  purposed 
(v.  23,  24). 

1.  Paul  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ  by  the  will  of 
God,  and  Timothy  our  brother,  unto  the  church  of  God 
w^hich  is  at  Corinth,  v^ith  all  the  saints  which  are  in  all 
Achaia : 

2.  Grace  he  to  you,  and  peace,  from  God  our  Father, 
ia\(!ifrom  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

The  special  points  here  are — (a)  That  Timothy  having 
been  associated  with  Paul  at  Ephesus  in  the  writing  of  the 
first  epistle,  and  therefore  profoundly  interested  in  all  the 
pending  issues  at  Corinth,  is  naturally  with  Paul  in  the 
Avriting  of  this  epistle  also  :  (b)  That  it  addresses  not  the 
church  at  Corinth  only  but  all  the  saints  in  all  Achaia — 
the  province  of  which  Corinth  was  the  capital.  Under  the 
Roman  regime,  then  in  force,  Achaia  included  all  southern 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  I.  297 

Greece,  and  Macedonia  all  the  north  country.  The  small 
churches  or  scattered  brethren  in  Achaia,  outside  of  Corinth, 
were  naturally  in  close  relations  to  the  mother  church. 
They  are  not  alluded  to  by  name  elsewhere  in  this  epistle, 
— The  first  epistle  addressed,  besides  the  Corinthian  church 
proper,  all  who  in  every  place  call  on  the  name  of  the 
common  Lord. 

3.  Blessed  he  God,  even  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Father  of  mercies,  and  the  God  of  all  com- 
fort ; 

4.  "Who  comfortetli  us  in  all  our  tribulation,  that  we 
may  be  able  to  comfort  them  which  are  in  any  trouble, 
by  the  comfort  wherewith  we  ourselves  are  comforted 
of  God. 

5.  For  as  the  sufferings  of  Christ  abound  in  us,  so 
our  consolation  also  abouudeth  by  Christ. 

The  precious  thoughts  suggested  here  arc  that  God 
tenderly  notes  and  remembers  all  the  sorrows  and  afflictions 
of  his  children,  and  pre-eminently  those  that  come  from 
honest  service  in  his  cause  ;  that  to  all  such  he  is  the 
Fatlier  of  mercies  and  the  God  of  all  comfort  ;  that  one 
object  in  comforting  his  laboring  servants  is  that  they  may 
be  the  better  able  to  comfort  other  saints  in  their  afflic- 
tions.— In  v.  5,  ''the  sufferings  of  Christ"  must  be  not 
those  which  Christ  personally  endured,  but  only  such  as 
those  which  his  people  endure  in  their  labors  for  him.  It 
is  only  in  this  sense  that  these  sufferings  "  abound  in  us," 
and  that  correspondingly,  our  consolations  in  Christ  abound 
also.  The  more  we  suffer  for  Christ  the  greater  the  con- 
solation he  gives  us.  All  christian  experience  testifies  to 
this — that  all  honest  loving  sacrifices  made  for  Christ  bring 
their  own  rich  and  present  reward. 

6.  And  whether  we  be  afflicted,  it  is  for  your  conso- 
lation and  salvation,  which  is  effectual  in  the  eiiduring 
of  the  same  sufferings  which  we  also  suffer  :  or  whether 
we  be  comforted,  it  is  for  your  consolation  and  salvation. 

7.  And  our  hope  of  you  is  steadfast,  knowing  that 
as  ye  are  partakers  of  the  sufferings,  so  shall  ye  he  also 
of  the  consolation. 

In  V.  6,  the  older  textual  authorities  slightly  change 


298  2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  I. 

the  place  of  the  middle  clause,  attaching  it  to  the  last  aud 
not  to  the  first  clause,  thus  :  '•  If  we  are  afflicted,  it  is  for 
your  consolation  and  salvation  ;  if  we  be  comforted  it  is 
for  your  consolation  which  energizes  [takes  effect]  in  the 
patient  endurance  of  the  same  sufferings  which  we  also 
suffer."  Our  hope  in  your  behalf  is  firm  because  we  know 
that  as  ye  share  the  suffering,  so  shall  ye  also  the  consola- 
tion. This  blessed  law  of  christian  suffering  is  always  aud 
everywhere  a  precious  comfort  and  joy. 

8.  For  we  would  not,  brethren,  have  you  ignorant  of 
our  trouble  which  came  to  us  in  Asia,  that  we  were 
pressed  out  of  measure,  above  strength,  insomuch  that 
we  despaired  even  of  life  : 

9.  But  we  had  the  sentence  of  death  in  ourselves, 
tliat  we  should  not  trust  in  ourselves,  but  in  God  which 
raiscth  the  dead : 

10.  AVho  delivered  us  from  so  great  a  death,  and  doth 
deliver :  in  whom  we  trust  that  he  will  yet  deliver  us; 

11.  Ye  also  helping  together  by  prayer  for  us,  that 
for  the  gift  hestowed  \i]3on  us  by  the  means  of  many 
persons  thanks  may  be  given  by  many  on  our  behalf. 

These  troubles  in  Asia  (supposably  at  Ephesus  as  in 
Acts  19),  were  so  extreme  that  Paul  at  one  time  despaired 
of  life,  and  felt  himself  destined  to  a  speedy  death.  But 
God  permitted  this  in  order  to  teach  him  not  to  trust  in 
himself  or  in  man,  but  in  God  only — who  could  and  would 
deliver — in  answer  to  prayer.  He  suggests — we  may  hope 
not  without  reason — that  the  prayer  of  at  least  some  of  the 
dear  ones  at  Corinth  had  been  both  offered  and  heard  in 
his  behalf.  If  many  had  joined  in  those  prayers,  so  let 
them  all  join  also  in  appropriate  thanksgivings  to  God  for 
delivering  mercy. 

12.  For  our  rejoicing  is  this,  the  testimony  of  our 
conscieiTce,  that  in  simplicity  and  godly  sincerity,  not 
with  fleshly  wisdom,  but  by  the  grace  of  God,  we  have 
had  our  conversation  in  the  world,  and  more  abundantly 
to  you-ward. 

13.  For  we  write  none  other  things  unto  you,  than 
what  ye  read  or  acknowledge ;  and  I  trust  ye  shall  ac- 
knowledge even  to  the  end ; 


2  CORINTHIAJ^S.— CHAP.  I.  299 

14.  As  also  ye  have  acknowledged  us  in  part,  that 
we  are  your  rejoicing  even  as  ye  also  are  ours  in  the  day 
of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

I  fail  to  detect  any  very  close  connection  of  thought 
between  this  passage  and  vs.  8-11  preceding.  This,  how- 
ever, may  be  suggested,  that  the  verses  preceding  are  here 
to  awaken  fresli  interest  in  his  brethren  at  Corinth  through 
sympathy  with  his  perils  in  Asia  ;  while  v.  12ff.  are  in  close 
connection  with  vs.  3-7,  being  some  of  the  staple  points  of 
this  epistle — the  necessary  vindication  of  himself  before  his 
columniators  in  Corinth. — Paul  says  it  is  a  source  of  great 
and  unceasing  joy  to  him  that  he  has  conscientiously  de- 
voted himself  to  Christ's  work  both  in  Corinth  and  where- 
ever  else  God  has  called  him. — '"'Had  our  conversation," 
means,  not  our  talk  but  our  life — the  whole  of  our  activi- 
ties in  the  gospel  of  Clirist. 

V.  13  seems  to  allude  tacitly  to  certain  charges  brought 
against  Paul  of  underhanded  movements,  joerhaps  of  clan- 
destine correspondence,  from  which  his  enemies  insinuated 
that  they  had  been  debarred.  Paul  protests  his  innocence 
of  this  charge.  He  is  confident  that  in  the  end  he  shall 
be  more  than  merely  accpiitted  of  all  double  dealing,  yea, 
shall  even  compel  their  full  acknowledgment  of  his  sin- 
cerity, faitlifulness  and  love,  as  they  had  done  in  part 
already.  This  limitation  ["in  part "]  may  raise  the  ques- 
tion between  a  partial  acknowledgment  in  tlie  churcii  as 
a  whole,  or  an  acknowledgment  from  a  part  of  the  church 
[certain  malecontents]  — with  the  probabilities  strongly  in 
favor  of  the  former.  Paul  trusts  that  their  acknowledge- 
ment will  be  full  to  the  point — that  ye  shall  rejoice  in  us  as 
we  shall  also  in  you — in  the  great  day  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

Plainly  Paul  assumes  the  personal  recognition  of  chris- 
tian friends  in  the  great  day  of  Christ  [and  thenceforward 
forever],  and  of  all  those  mutual  relations  in  which  we  may 
have  ministered  to  each  other's  spiritual  life.  He  would 
then  rejoice  in  his  converts,  and  they  also  in  him,  (So  also 
1  Thess.  2:  19,  20. 

15.  And  in  this  confidence  I  was  minded  to  come 
unto- you  before,  that  ye  might  have  a  second  benefit ; 

16.  And  to  pass  by  you  into  Macedonia,  and  to  come 
again  out  of  Macedonia  unto  you,  and  of  yon  to  be 
brought  on  my  way  toward  Judea. 


300  2  CORINTHIANS,— CHAP,  1. 

17.  When  I  therefore  was  thus  minded,  did  I  use 
lightness  ?  or  the  things  that  I  purpose,  do  I  pui'pose  ac- 
cording to  the  flesh,  that  with  me  there  should  be  yea, 
yea,  and  nay,  nay  ? 

18.  But  as  God  is  true,  our  word  toward  you  was 
not  yea  and  nay. 

Having  this  confidence,  I  had  been  purposing  to  come 
to  you  that  ye  might  receive  yet  other  blessings  through 
my  labors.  My  plan  was  to  go  first  to  Corinth  ;  thence  to 
Macedonia  ;  then  return  from  Macedonia  to  Corinth,  and 
thence  proceed  to  Judea.  This  plan  was  not  carried  out ; 
but  instead,  Paul  Avent  first  into  Macedonia  and  waited 
there  for  Titus  to  report  to  him  from  Corinth,  The  reason 
elsewhere  given  for  this  change,  was  that  he  chose  not  to 
go  there  in  person  till  he  knew  the  result  of  that  case  of 
discipline.  (See  below  v.  23  and  2:  3  and  12:  20  and  13: 
2,  10).  _ 

This  change  in  an  expressed  purpose  had  been  seized 
upon  by  his  enemies  and  ascribed  to  fickleness  and  to  some 
selfish,  unworthy  motive.-  Both  these  points,  Paul  denies  ; 
— (a)  The  charge  of  being  fickle  of  purpose,  saying,  now 
yea,  yea  ;  and  then  nay,  nay  ; — and  (b)  The  charge  of 
base  motives — purposing  "according  to  the  flesh." — In  v. 
18,  the  solemn  asseveration — ''God  is  true" — implies  an 
intense  feeling  of  indignation  against  his  traducers,  and 
a  sense  of  the  demand  for  an  earnest  defence.  I  protest 
there  was  no  fickleness  of  purpose,  but  the  best  of  reasons 
for  my  change  of  plan. 

19.  For  the  Son  of  God,  Jesus  Christ,  who  was 
preached  among  you  by  us,  even  by  me  and  Silvanus 
and  Timotheus,  was  not  yea  and  nay,  but  in  him  was 
yea. 

20.  For  all  the  promises  of  God  in  him  are  yea,  a;nd 
in  him  Amen,  unto  the  glory  of  God  by  us. 

It  seems  to  have  been  due  to  association  of  ideas  that 
Paul  passes  from  the  "yea  and  nay"  with  which  he  had 
been  falsely  charged,  to  the  eternal  verities,  the  everlasting 
faithfulness  of  the  gospel  promises  which  his  associates  and 
himself  had  preached  among  them.  Eeally  he  means  to 
say  that  as  the  gospel  which  he  preached  was  forever  true 
and  honest,  so  he,  in  all  his  labors  and  plans,  had  also 


2  CORINTHIANS.-CHAP.  I.  301 

wrought  ill  the  same  spirit  of  honest  fidelity  to  liis  Master 
and  to  his  own  convictions  as  to  what  it  was  wise  to  do. 
A  nobly  grand  declaration  is  this — that  all  the  promises  of 
God  [whatever  and  how  many  so  ever,  his  words  imply] 
are  all  in  him,  yea — positive,  true  ;  and  therefore  also  in 
him  are  Amen  [even  so],  to  the  glory  of  God  by  us. 

Silas  and  Timothy  are  named  as  having  been  his  fel- 
low-laborers in  Corinth.  Luke  (Acts  18  :  5)  says  the  same. 
This  accounts  for  the  name  of  Timothy  associated  with 
Paul  in  this  letter  (1  :  1). 

21.  ITow  he  whicli  stablislieth  us  with  jou  in  C-hrist, 
and  hath  anointed  us,  is  God ; 

22.  "Who  hath  also  sealed  us,  and  given  the  earnest 
of  the  Spirit  in  our  hearts. 

The  full  sense  of  Paul's  forcible  words  here  is — He  who 
hath  brought  us,  together  with  you,  into  Christ  and  made 
us  firm  and  strong  in  him,  is  God,  who  hath  sealed  us  that 
we  may  be  forever  known  as  his,  and  hath  given  us  the 
earnest  of  the  Spirit — the  pledge,  the  first  fruits  of  salva- 
tion, guaranteeing  all  else  we  may  need.  Paul  delights  in 
this  conception  of  the  Spirit  as  an  earnest  of  further  bless- 
ings, having  used  it  repeatedlv  (See  below  5  :  5,  and  Eph. 
1 :  14). 

23.  Moreover  I  call  God  for  a  record  upon  my  soul, 
that  to  spare  you  I  came  not  as  yet  unto  Corinth. 

24.  Nor  for  that  we  have  dominion  over  your  faith, 
but  are  helpers  of  your  joy :  for  by  faith  ye  stand. 

This  calling  God  to  witness  must  assume  that  Paul  felt 
keenly  the  charge  made  against  him  and  the  necessity  of 
rebutting  it  by  the  most  solemn  asseverations. 

Here  he  gives  briefly  the  reason  of  his  change  of  plan — 
viz.,  to  spare  them  those  fearful  inflictions  of  judgment 
which  in  the  exercise  of  his  Apostolic  authority  he  might 
have  been  compelled  to  employ  if  he  had  gone.  He  was 
much  exercised  on  this  point ;  it  was  a  case  of  great  im- 
portance. He  longed  exceedingly  to  have  it  result  in  the 
repentance  of  the  offender  and  indeed,  of  the  church  also, 
both  for  the  honor  of  the  gospel  and  to  spare  both  himself 
and  them  those  painful  inflictions  which  must  otherwise 
follow. 


302  2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  I. 

In  \.  24,  Paul's  personal  modesty  and  good  sense  are 
prominent.  We  do  not  assume  any  lordship  over  your 
faith  ;  we  would  only  be  mutual  helpers  of  your  joy  ;  for 
ye  stand  in  the  faith,  i.  e.  of  the  gospel  as  your  only  and 
sufficient  foundation  for  standing  at  all.  Paul  assumes 
that  while  they  were  thus  standing  in  the  faith,  it  would 
be  superfluous  if  not  preposterous  for  himself  to  assume 
to  control  their  faith.  In  their  case  the  doubtful  point 
was  not  in  their  faith  but  in  their  Christian  bearing  over 
that  case  of  fearful  crime  in  their  communion. 


-CjOO- 


CHAPTEPt    II. 

Paul  explains  more  fully  why  he  would  not  come  to 
Corinth  till  the  case  of  discipline  there  was  settled  (v.  1-5). 
Now  that  the  offender  is  penitent  he  begs  the  church  to 
forgive  and  comfort  him  (v.  6-11)  ;  speaks  of  his  extreme 
anxiety  over  this  case  and  from  the  delay  in  hearing  the 
result  (v.  12,  13)  ;  thanks  God  for  the  results  of  his  gospel 
preaching — which  are  pleasing  to  God  in  the  case  of  both 
the  saved  and  the  lost  (v.  11-17). 

1.  But  I  determined  tliis  with  myself,  that  I  would 
not  come  again  to  you  in  heaviness. 

2.  For  if  I  make  you  sorry,  who  is  he  then  that 
maketh  me  glad,  but  the  same  which  is  made  sorry  by 
me? 

3.  And  I  wrote  this  same  nnto  you,  lest,  when  I 
came,  I  should  have  sorrow  from  them  of  whom  I  ought 
to  rejoice ;  having  confidence  in  you  all,  that  my  joy  is 
the  joy  of  you  all. 

To  have  gone  to  Corinth  in  person,  under  this  crushing 
sorrow,  knowing  moreover  that  the  severe  measures  which 
he  assumed  to  be  unavoidable  would  only  grieve  them  the 
more,  and  there  be  none  to  alleviate  his  own  griefs — this 
would  not  answer.  He  was  confident  that  what  would  be 
joy  to  him  would  be  joy  to  them  also  ;  and,  vice  versa,  what 
would  be  grief  to  himself  would  be  to  them.     Hence  the 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  II.  303 

wisdom  of  waiting  in  the  hope  that  affectionate  yet  firm 
discipline  would  bring  the  remedy  sought  without  those 
painful  inflictions  from  which  Paul's  heart  recoiled. 

4.  For  out  of  much  affliction  and  anguish  of  heart  I 
wrote  unto  you  with  many  tears ;  not  that  ye  should  be 
grieved,  but  that  ye  might  know  the  love  which  I  have 
more  abundantly  unto  you. 

5.  But  if  any  have  caused  grief,  he  hath  not  grieved 
me  but  in  part :  that  I  may  not  overcharge  you  all. 

He  had  written  tliem  [in  his  first  epistle]  out  of  the 
deep  anguish  of  his  heart,  not  to  grieve  them  but  to  assure 
them  of  his  great  love  for  them. 

Verse  5  is  somewhat  difficult.  The  construction  which 
is  on  the  whole  preferred  may  be  given  tlius  :  If  any  one 
has  caused  grief,  it  is  not  me  that  he  has  grieved,  but  in  a 
measure  (not  to  be  severe)  you  all.  Not  to  be  too  severe 
upon  them,  he  will  admit  that  the  great  scandal  in  their 
church  was  to  some  extent  a  grief  to  them  all  and  not  to 
himself  only.  This  concession  was  to  their  honor. — The 
word  "if"' in  the  first  clause — "?/  any  one  has  caused 
grief" — involves  no  uncertainty  as  to  the  fact.  It  is  Paul's 
frequent  method  of  saying — Now  in  respect  to  that  man 
who  caused  such  grief,  it  was  not  myself  alone  that  he 
grieved,  etc. 

6.  Sufficient  to  such  a  man  is  this  punishment,  which 
was  injlicted  of  many. 

7.  So  that  contrariwise  ye  ought  rather  to  forgive 
Tiim  and  comfort  him^  lest  perhaps  such  a  one  should 
be  swallowed  up  with  overmuch  sorrow. 

8.  Wherefore  I  beseech  you  that  ye  would  confirm 
your  love  toward  him. 

9.  For  to  this  end  also  did  I  write,  that  I  might 
know  the  proof  of  you,  whether  ye  be  obedient  in  all 
things. 

10.  To  whom  ye  forgive  any  thing,  1.  forgive  also  :  for 
if  I  forgave  any  thing,  to  whom  I  forgave  it  for  your 
sakes  forgave  1  it  in  the  person  of  Christ ; 

11.  Lest  Satan  should  get  an  advantage  of  us:  for 
we  are  not  ignorant  of  his  devices. 

*•'  Such  a  man  "  means  only — that  man,  being  such  as 


304  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  II. 

he  is, — i.  e.  now  penitent  and  humbled.  Let  the  punishment 
he  has  suffered  suffice — that  sentence  of  excommunication, 
passed  by  a  majority  rote  of  the  church,  by  the  many. 
This  was,  therefore,  a  self-governing  church. — Now  there- 
fore, (v.  1),  reversing  your  action,  ye  ought  rather  to  for- 
give and  comfort,  lest,  being  such  a  man,  now  crushed  down 
Avith  penitent  grief,  he  be  swallowed  up.  drowned  in  the 
deeps  of  this  more  abundant  sorrow.  Wherefore,  I  ex- 
hort you,  make  your  love  for  liim  strong  [very  expressive]; 
manifest  it  unmistakably. — For  this  purpose  I  have  written 
iinto  you  [i.e.  in  this  letter],  that  I  may  know  whether  ye 
are  obedient  in  all  things  to  my  directions. 

The  clause  — "  in  the  person  of  Christ,"  which  is  liter- 
ally— in  the  face  or  presence  of  Christ — raises  the  question 
between  acting  in  the  2)erson  of  Christ,  or  doing  a  thing 
Icfore  Christ,  as  in  his  very  presence.  The  latter  is  prob- 
ably the  right  construction.  The  really  penitent  man, 
Paul  would  hasten  to  forgive,  that  we  be  not  outwitted 
by  Satan — he  getting  the  better  of  us  by  driving  this  sor- 
rowing, consciously  outcast  brother  into  despair. — It 
should  be  borne  in  mind  that  an  excommunicate  is  thought 
of  as  "dehvered  over  unto  Satan"  (1.  Tim.  1:20.)  the 
God  of  this  world,  i.  e.  of  all  who  are  outside  the  church — 
he  having  [then]  permission  to  afflict  the  body,  and  being 
only  too  happy  to  seize  his  opportunity  to  destroy  the  soul 
also.  AYe  know  his  devices  :  let  him  not  be  too  sharp  for 
us. — This  case  is  full  of  useful  suggestions  as  to  cases  of 
extreme  discipline. 

12.  Furthermore,  when  I  came  to  Troas  to  jt?rmcA 
Christ's  gospel,  and  a  door  v^^as  opened  unto  me  of  the 
Lord, 

13.  1  had  no  rest  in  my  spirit,  because  I  found  not 
Titus  my  brother ;  but  taking  my  leave  of  them,  I  went 
from  thence  into  Macedonia. 

Journeying  from  Ephesus  into  Europe,  Troas  lay  in  his 
route.  There  Paul  found  a  wide  door  opened  ;  but  strong 
as  this  attraction  was,  his  anxiety  for  Corinth  aud  his  dis- 
appointment in  not  finding  Titus,  were  so  great  he  could 
not  stay,  but  hastened  on  to  Maccedonia. 

14.  IsTow  thanks  he  unto  God,  which  always  causeth 


2  CORIMTHIANS.— CHAP.  II.  305 

US  to  triumph,  in  Christ,  and  maketh  manifest  the  savour 
of  his  knowledge  by  us  in  every  place. 

15.  For  we  are  unto  God  a  sweet  savour  of  Christ,  in 
them  that  are  saved,  and  in  them  that  perish. 

16.  To  the  one  ive  are  the  savour  of  death  unto 
death;  and  to  the  other  the  savour  of  life  unto  life. 
And  who  is  sufficient  for  those  things  ? 

17.  For  we  are  not  as  many,  which  corrupt  the 
word  of  God :  but  as  of  sincerity,  but  as  of  God,  in 
the  sight  of  God  speak  we  in  Christ. 

The  word  '^ savor"  is  used  indiscriminately  in  respect 
to  the  senses  of  taste  and  of  smell ;  but  the  words  used  by 
Paul  for  "  savor"  and  '*  sweet  savor"  refer  to  smell  only — 
odors  therefore,  as  of  burning  incense  ;  here  apparently 
suggested  by  the  usage  of  burning  incense  in  triumphal 
processions.  Paul  suggests  tiiat  his  preaching  of  Christ 
was  grateful,  pleasing  to  God,  even  as  sweet  incense ;  and 
that  God  delighted  in  the  results  of  this  preaching,  and 
in  the  cases  of  both  the  saved  and  the  lost : — this  gospel 
influence  being  that  of  life  unto  life  to  the  saved  ;  of  death 
unto  death  to  the  lost.  Paul  does  not  say  that  God  is 
equally  pleased  with  either  result — just  as  happy  when 
the  gospel  works  unto  death  as  when  it  works  unto  life  ; 
but  only  that  his  gospel  labor  is  accepted  of  God  in  both 
cases  ;  i.e.  whether  men  are  saved  or  are  lost. 

Doubtless  the  truth  is  that  God  rejoices  supremely  over 
the  saved  ;  while  in  the  case  of  the  lost,  he  accepts  the 
result  as  the  best  which  He  and  his  ministering  servants 
can  attain  ;  and  then  overrules  it  for  all  the  good  pos- 
sible to  himself  in  the  case. — The  special  point  made  by 
Paul  is  to  thank  God  for  the  gospel  triumph  which  God 
gives  him,  and  to  say  that  God  accepts  his  honest  work 
with  joyous  delight,  whether  this  work  results  in  saving 
or  in  not  saving  human  souls. 

'•'Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things  ?" — contemplates  the 
overwhelming  responsibility  of  such  gospel  work — ever- 
more issuing  in  the  salvation  of  one  class  and  the  deeper 
damnation  of  the  other.  Working  day  after  day  at  that 
diverging  point  where  men  under  the  gospel  part  asunder, 
some  for  the  way  of  life,  other  some  for  the  way  of  death — 
where  a  word  or  a  prayer  may  turn  the  scale  and  shape 


306  2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  II. 

the  eternal  result ;  who  is  suflBcient  for  trusts  so  great  and 
for  the  shaping  of  issues  so  momentuous  ! 

But  it  comforts  Paul  that  he  can  say  : — We  are  not  like 
the  many  who  adulterate  the  word  of  God,  toning  it  down, 
or  trimming  it  to  the  tastes  of  bad  men  ;  but  in  all  sincer- 
ity, as  men  of  God,  acting  in  behalf  of  God,  we  speak  in 
Christ — i.e.  in  the  sphere  of  his  presence,  his  love,  and 
his  service. 


-lOo- 


CHAPTEE  III. 

This  chapter  is  unique,  one  line  of  thought  running 
through  the  whole.  It  will  be  interesting,  and  pei'haps 
not  specially  difficult  to  trace  this  course  of  thought  from 
its  beginning  to  its  close. — The  key  to  it  lies  in  this  con- 
ception— transformation  of  character  represented  iy  the 
gospel  ivritten  on  the  heart  hy  the  Sjnrit  of  God. — Paul 
starts  with  the  idea  of  a  simple  letter  of  recommendation  ; 
which  suggests,  next,  that  his  converts  there  in  Corinth 
are  his  letters  of  recommendation — first  thought  of  as 
written  on  his  own  loving  heart ;  but  next,  as  an  "  ejnstle 
of  Christ,'"  of  which  himself  had  been  only  the  amanuen- 
sis, and  the  Spirit  of  God  the  real  writer  ; — which  leads 
him  to  exalt  the  Spirit's  efficiency,  and  to  disclaim  this 
efficiency  for  himself.  Then  there  comes  up  to  his  mind 
the  contrast  between  the  law  written  on  stones,  and  this 
gospel  written  on  living  hearts.  This  contrast  he  devel- 
opes  in  many  particulars,  setting  forth  the  inferior  glory 
of  that  ancient  law,  which  yet  shone  symbolically  in  the 
face  of  Moses,  calling  for  that  vail  over  his  face  ; — which 
suggests  the  unbelief  that  darkened  the  spiritual  vision  of 
the  Jews, — but  the  glory  of  our  Lord  Jesus,  seen  by  us 
with  face  unvailed,  works  blessed  transformation  through 
the  Holy  Spirit  of  the  Lord. 

1.  Do  we  begin  again  to  commend  ourselves?  or 
need  we,  as  some  others,  epistles  of  commendation  to 
you,  or  letters  of  commendation  from  you  ? 

2.  Ye  are  our  epistle  written  in  our  hearts,  known 
and  read  of  all  men  : 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  III.  307 

3.  Forasmuch  as  ye  are  manifestly  declared  to  be 
the  epistle  of  Christ  ministered  by  us,  written  not  with 
ink,  but  with  the  Spirit  of  the  living  God ;  not  in  tables 
of  stone,  but  in  fleshy  tables  of  the  heart. 

It  is  quite  snpposahle  that  some  Jewish  emissaries  from 
Jerusalem  had  appeared  in  Corinth,  fomenting  the  dis- 
affection toward  Paul,  but  armed  with  letters  of  recom- 
mendation from  the  head  centre  of  the  Judaizing  party. 
If  so,  the  suggestive  force  of  this  slight  circumstance  was 
turned  to  admirable  account  in  the  fertile  brain  of  the 
Great  Apostle  toward  producing  this  wonderful  chapter. 

Do  we  [Timothy  and  myself]  need  letters  of  recommen- 
dation to  you  or  from  you  ?  Nay,  indeed,  ye  yourselves 
are  our  letters  ;  we  have  the  imprint  in  our  own  loving 
hearts,  for  all  men  to  know  and  to  read. — Then,  slightly 
modifying  the  figure  (v.  3); — Because  ye  are  shown  to  be 
the  Epistle  of  Christ,  wi'itten  by  himself  through  our  in- 
strumentaHty — the  lettering  being  done  not  with  ink  but 
with  the  Spirit  of  the  living  God ;  and  not  on  tablets  of 
"stone,  but  of  flesh,  the  heart's  own  living  flesh. — Thus 
Christian  character,  made  and  molded  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
is  the  result  which  is  here  compared  to  a  letter  engraved 
on  the  susceptible  heart. 

4.  And  such  trust  have  we  through  Christ  to  God- 
ward  : 

5.  ISTot  that  we  are  sufficient  of  ourselves  to  think 
any  thing  as  of  ourselves ;  but  our  sufficiency  is  of  God. 

6.  Who  also  hath  made  us  able  ministers  of  the  new 
testament ;  not  of  the  letter,  but  of  the  spirit ;  for  the 
letter  killeth,  but  the  spirit  giveth  life. 

The  point  of  this  ''  trust "  I  take  to  be — that  their  gospel 
labors  had  really  been  blessed  of  God  unto  this  result,  viz., 
a  transformed  character — a  new  spiritual  life  in  their  souls 
But  his  modest  humility  recoils  from  assuming  the  effi- 
ciency or  the  honor  for  himself — even  of  thinking,  doing 
any  proper  intellectual  work,  purely  of  himself.  All  our 
sufficiency  [competency,  capacity],  is  of  God,  who  has 
made  us  ''sufficient"  [capable]  ministers  of  this  new  cove- 
nant— the  gospel  scheme.  Very  pertinently  Paul  has  the 
same  word  in  v.  6,  as  in  v.  5,  for  "sufficient,"  "suffi- 
ciency."    God  has  sufficed  us  (if  we  may  coin  a  word  to 


308  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHA.P.  III. 

match  his),  as  gospel  ministers — this  sufficiency  lying  in 
the  living  energy  of  the  Spirit,  and  not  in  the  dead  forms 
of  the  letter.  The  mere  "  letter"  raises  hopes  that  end  in 
death.  It  is  only  the  Spirit  that  breathes  life  into  men's 
souls. — Paul  had'  never  the  least  faith  in  ritualism. 

7.  But  if  the  ministration  of  death,  written  and  en- 
graven in  stones,  was  glorious,  so  that  the  children  of 
Israel  could  not  steadfastly  behold  the  face  of  Moses  for 
the  glory  of  his  countenance ;  which  glory  was  to  be 
done  away ; 

8.  How  shall  not  the  ministration  of  the  Spirit  be 
rather  glorious? 

9.  For  if  the  ministration  of  condemnation  he  glory, 
much  more  does  the  ministration  of  righteousness  ex- 
ceed in  glory. 

10.  For  even  that  which  was  made  glorious  had  no 
glory  in  this  respect,  by  reason  of  the  glory  that  excel- 
leth. 

11.  For  if  that  which  is  done  away  was  glorious, 
much  more  that  which  remaineth  is  glorious. 

We  must  ascribe  it  to  the  perpetual  antagonism  of  the 
Judiazing  faction  that  Paul  feels  so  keenly  and  speaks  so 
strongly  of  the  "  letter  that  kills  ;"  of  "  the  ministration 
of  death,  engraven  in  stones,"  etc.  The  old  law,  given 
through  Moses  became  death-bearing  to  the  unbelieving 
Israel  when  they  put  it  in  the  place  of  the  gospel,  and 
sought  salvation  in  and  through  its  forms  and  ceremonies, 
or  even  when  they  rested  upon  its  moral  code  as  their 
reliance  for  salvation  from  sin.  That  law  had  a  certain 
"glory" — had  points  of  excellence  never  to  be  ignored  ; 
but  its  first  value  was  in  its  power  of  condemnation 
against  the  sinner,  a  '•'  a  ministration  of  condemnation;" — 
compared  with  Avhich  "the  ministration  of  righteousness" 
revealing  God's  mode  of  pardon  and  justification  through 
Christ,  must  be  superabundantly  glorious. 

This  praise  of  the  gospel  scheme  as  compared  with  the 
Jewish  scheme  of  salvation  through  law  without  gospel, 
should  be  carefully  studied  in  the  light  of  the  living  Ju- 
daism with  which  Paul  had  to  deal — that  Pharisaic  formal- 
ism ;  that  idolatry  of  Moses  and  the  law ;  that  disparage- 
ment of  Jesus  and  liis  gospel — which  confronted  him  in 


3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  III.  309 

every  primitive  cliurcli  and  constituted  in  many  respects 
the  most  inveterate  opposition  which  his  gospel  labor  had 
to  encounter. 

In  these  verses,  Paul,  (so  to  speak)  shakes  his  kaleido- 
scope to  bring  up  perpetually  new  aspects  of  the  great  fact 
set  forth,  viz.,  the  higher  glory  of  the  gospel  scheme  as 
contrasted  with  the  law. 

The  one  engraven  on  stones ;  the  other  administered 
by  the  Spiiit — the  latter  must  be  the  more  glorious.  The 
one  is  unto  and  for  condemnation,  the  other  unto  life 
through  pardon  and  real  intrinsic  righteousness  : — the  lat- 
ter must  therefore  surpass  in  glory.  Tliough  the  glory  of 
the  former  was  conspicuous  when  it  first  shone  out,  it  was 
marvellously  eclipsed  and  thrown  into  the  shade  by  "  the 
glory  that  excelleth. "  Finally,  that  one  of  the  two  whose 
jDurposes  were,  to  a  certain  extent,  transient,  had  a  certain 
glory  ;  but  that  which  was  never  to  pass  away  ought  to  be 
and  is  transcendently  glorious. 

12.  Seeing  then  that  we  have  such  hope,  we  use 
great  plainness  of  speech  : 

13.  And  not  as  Moses,  wldch  put  a  vail  over  his  face, 
that  the  children  of  Israel  could  not  steadfastly  look  to 
the  end  of  that  which  is  abolislied : 

14.  But  their  minds  were  blinded  :  for  until  this  day 
remaineth  the  same  vail  untaken  away  in  the  reading  of 
the  old  testament ;  which  vail  is  done  away  in  Christ. 

*' Having  such  hope" — i.  e.  in  the  enduring  and  pre- 
eminent glory  of  the  gospel  scheme,  we  use  great  freedom 
of  speech  [better  than  "plainness"],  this  being  the  com- 
mon word  for  speaking  boldly,  with  no  self-restraint.  AYe 
are  not  like  Moses  drawing  a  vail  over  his  face,  so  that  the 
people  should  not  gaze  upon  the  disappearing  glory  which 
was  destined  to  cease.  This  clause  is  difficult,  the  word 
"  end"  [telos]  being  susceptible  of  two  senses  ;  (a)  Of  time 
— a  terminus  as  to  time  ;  and  (b)  Of  result  or  purpose — that 
for  wliicli  a  thing  is  done.  Hence  we  must  choose  between 
(a)  (as  above) — so  that  the  people  should  not  see  the  sub- 
siding, waning,  disappearance  of  that  perishable  glory  : — 
or  {h) — so  that  they  should  not  see  through  into  the  ulti- 
mate result  of  that  system  which  God  was  to  displace  by  the 
gospel. 
14 


310  2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  III. 

The  former  best  corresiDonds  to  the  usage  of  the  words 
and  to  the  grammatical  construction.  Moreover,  tliere  is 
a  reason  for  it.  To  have  witnessed  the  subsidence  of  that 
splendor  would  naturally  lessen  their  reverence  and  abate 
from  their  impression  of  the  divine.  But  we  have  to  do 
rather  with  the  meaning  of  what  is  said  than  with  the 
reasons  for  the  proceeding.  Ui^on  the  latter  we  can  only 
speculate. 

But  (v.  14),  their  minds  were  blinded;  their  spiritual 
perceptions  of  truth  were  hardened,  dulled ;  for  until  this 
day  that  same  vail  (which  is  suggested  by  the  vail  over  the 
face  of  Moses)  remains  upon  their  eyes  when  they  read  the 
Old  Testament  [the  law  of  Moses] — it  not  being  revealed 
to  them  that  the  old  system  was  to  be  superceded  in  Christ. 
Paul's  word  suggests  that  this  revealing  would  result  in 
the  unvailing — the  removal  of  the  vail.  Literally — it  not 
being  unvaUed  to  them  that  the  old  glory  is  to  be  abolished 
in  Christ,  being  thrown  entirely  into  the  shade  and  made 
to  disappear  under  the  blaze  of  his  transcendent  glory.* 

15.  But  even  unto  tliis  day,  vN'hen  Moses  is  read,  the 
vail  is  upon  their  heart. 

16.  JSTevertheless,  when  it  shall  turn  to  the  Lord,  the 
vail  shall  be  taken  away. 

Unto  this  day  they  read  Moses  with  that  vail  upon  their 
face  ;  but  when  they  shall  turn  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  know 
him  and  his  salvation,  that  vail  will  be  removed. 

17.  N'ow  the  Lord  is  that  Spirit :  and  wliere  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty. 

18.  But  we  all,  with  open  face  beholding  as  in  a  glass 
the  glory  of  the  Lord,  are  changed  into  the  same  image 
from  glory  to  glory,  even  as  by  the  Si)irit  of  the  Loi'd. 

The  Lord  Jesus  is  essentially  that  "  Spirit "  of  which  he 
had  spoken  in  v.  3  ; — "written  with  the  Spirit  of  the  liv- 
ing God";  and  also  v.  6  ; — "the  Spirit  giveth  life."  The 
Lord  Jesus  and  the  Holy  Spirit  work  coordinately,  the 
Spirit  being  tlie  Revealer  of  Christ,  being  sent  by  Christ  to 
represent  himself  and  do  his  work.  In  such  a  connection 
as  the  present,  their  respective  agencies  are  so  entirely 

*  This  translation  turns  upon  a  modified  test,  changing  "that 
■which"  ['o  ti]  into  "that"  [oti]. 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  III.  311 

harmonious,  not  to  say  identical,  that  tiiere  is  no  occasion 
to  distinguish  the  one  from  the  other. 

The  words — ''there  is  liberty" — are  sometimes  egre- 
giously  abused,  as  if  Paul  could  mean  that  under  the 
Spirit's  presence  and  light,  men  are  free  to  anything  they 
will !  What  he  meant  should  be  ascertained  from  the  con- 
nection of  thought  here.  So  studied  and  ascertained,  his 
meaning  will  be  found  to  be  this  ; — liberty  in  the  sense  of 
free,  unobstructed  vision,  with  no  vail  darkening  the  sight 
and  shutting  o3  the  real  truth  of  God.  In  this  free  un- 
obstructed vision,  we  all,  beholding  with  face  unvailed 
(and  each  for  himself)  the  glory  of  the  Lord  Jesus — the 
supreme  moral  beauty  and  excellence  that  shine  in  him — • 
are  transformed  into  the  same  image,  so  that  his  glory  be- 
comes reproduced  in  us — one  element  after  another  being 
transferred  from  his  character  into  oui's — borrowed  and 
developed  in  our  own. 

"  Beholding  as  in  a  glass  " — rather,  a  mirror — the  un- 
expressed antithesis  being  (probably)  with  seeing  face  to 
face.  The  light  of  Jesus  seen  in  the  mirror,  with  no  vail 
over  our  own  eyes,  is  precious  and  transforming ;  but  a 
3'et  higher  vision  remains — when  we  shall  behold  his  glory 
face  to  face  and  "see  him  as  he  is." 

In  the  last  clause  the  literal  translation  is — ''By  the 
Lord  the  Spirit" — the  design  of  this  peculiar  construction 
being  supposably  to  put  it  in  harmony  with  v.  17 — "Now 
the  Lord  is  that  Spirit " — it  being  Paul's  object  to  suggest 
that  in  this  transformation  of  spiritual  character,  Christ 
and  the  Spirit  work  coordinately.  For  really  it  is  the 
glory  of  Christ  that  is  revealed,  but  the  Agent  in  this 
revelation  is  the  Spirit. 

The  words,  "even  as" — i.  e.  according  as  [kathaper] 
are  not  without  difficulty.  I  suggest  that  the  sense  may 
be — as  is  wont  to  he  under  the  Spirit's  influence — even  as 
the  Spirit  of  God  in  its  normal  operations  always  trans- 
forms human  hearts  into  the  image  of  Christ. 

The  doctrine  of  these  closing  verses  is  richly  instruc- 
tive and  morally  grand  ;  viz.  That  the  vision,  the  men- 
tal contemplation  of  the  character  of  Christ,  has  under  the 
Spirit's  influence,  a  transforming  spiritual  power.  We  see 
moral  beauty;  we  love  it ;  and  so  we  are  unconsciously 
molded  into  it. 

The  philosophy  of  the  scriptures  is  always  the  philos- 


312  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  III. 

ophy  of  the  best  common  sense — of  which  we  have  a  fine 
illustration  in  the  point  now  before  tis — the  great  Icnv  of 
7noral  reformation  in  character.  John  understood  it  and 
spake  of  it  as  truthfully  and  clearly  as  Paul,  particularly 
in  the  passage  ; — "We  know  that  when  he  [Christ]  shall 
appear,  we  shall  be  like  him,  for  we  shall  see  him  as  he 
is."  Naturally,  by  the  normal  working  of  mind  upon  mind, 
of  heart  upon  heart,  it  will  come  to  pass  that  when  Christ 
shall  be  perfectly  manifested  before  his  people,  they  will 
become  perfectly  like  him,  for  [this  is  John's  reasoning  and 
it  discloses  his  philosophy] — ^  for,  we  shall  see  him  as  he 
is" — shall  see  him  not  dimly  ;  not  mistakenly;  not  with 
some  false  apprehensions  blended  perhaps  with  some  true 
— but  in  all  points  according  to  the  reality — "  as  he  is." 
Thus  the  revelations  of  Jesus  made  to  believiug  souls  by 
the  Spirit  of  God  are  truthful,  just,  always  according  to 
the  reality.  Hence  they  can  never  fail  to  be  morally 
wholesome,  producing  the  right  and  not  the  wrong  moral 
results. — And  then  they  are  so  rich,  so  attractive,  so  en- 
rapturing ;  they  produce  such  conviction  of  their  supreme 
beauty  and  fitness,  that  they  charm  the  soul  not  only  into 
admiration  and  love  but  into  imitation.  How  gently  yet 
how  j)Owerfully  do  such  revelations  of  Christ  rebuke  what- 
ever we  are  conscious  of  in  ourselves  as  unlike  Christ  and 
unworthy  of  his  love  !  Then,  with  what  agony  of  prayer 
and  with  what  intense  aspirations  do  we  implore,  not  for- 
giveness only  but  renewing  and  transforming  grace  so  that 
we  may  never 

"  Grieve  any  more  by  our  sins 
The  bosom  on  which  we  recline." 

As  to  the  broad  interpretation  of  this  chapter  ;  Paul 
labors  to  put  this  consummation  of  the  gospel's  moral  power 
in  strong  contrast  with  the  best  moral  results  which  Phari- 
saic Jews  ever  reached  by  mere  "law."  "Law"  in  their 
sense  and  in  their  use  of  it  was  only  a  ministration  of  con- 
demnation and  death.  Though  as  revealed  by  the  Lord 
to  Moses  it  had  a  certain  perceptible  "glory,"  yet  how 
dim  at  best  compared  with  the  transcendent  glory  of  the 
gospel ! 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP,  IV.  313 


CHAPTEE  IV. 


With  siicli  a  gospel  in  our  charge  and  with  such  con- 
ceptions of  its  perfect  adaptation  to  make  men  pure  and 
lovely  in  character,  let  me  next  (Paul  would  say)  speak  of 
the  way  we  have  fulfilled  our  commission  among  and  to- 
ward you. — Under  great  hindrances  and  embarrassments 
we  have  not  been  discouraged  (v.  1)  we  have  been  honest 
and  truthful  in  all  good  conscience  (v.  2)  ;  if  some  have 
failed  to  see  the  glory  of  the  gospel,  they  are  the  lost  whom 
Satan  has  blindfolded  (v.  3.  4)  :  our  gospel  light  has  come 
direct  from  God  (v.  5,  C) ;  yet  our  personal  weakness  and 
affliction  have  been  exceedingly  great  (v.  7-9)  :  even  to 
the  constant  peril  of  death  (v.  10-12);  but  we  have  labored 
under  the  power  of  a  faith  which  makes  the  things  of  God 
seem  to  be  realities  and  which  looks  steadfastly  at  things 
unseen  and  eternal  (v.  13-18). 

1.  Therefore  seeing  we  liave  this  ministry,  as  we 
have  received  mercy,  we  faint  not ; 

2.  But  have  renounced  the  hidden  things  of  dis- 
honesty, not  walking  in  craftiness,  nor  handling  the  word 
of  God  deceitfully ;  but,  by  manifestation  of  the  truth, 
commending  ourselves  to  every  man's  conscience  in  the 
sight  of  God. 

Paul  has  yet  more  to  say  of  his  gospel  work  at  Corinth, 
resuming  points  touched  but  not  I'ully  developed  before 
(as  in  3:  12). — "As  we  have  obtained  mercy,  we  faint  not" 
— will  not  be  disheartened  ;  can  never  abandon  our  gospel 
enterprise.  Tlie  great  mercy  of  gospel  light  and  forgive- 
ness— this  mercy  which  met  Paul  when  "  breathing  out 
threatening  and  slaughter,"  and  brought  him  to  prayer,faith 
and  love,  he  can  never  forget: — The  words  of  v.  2  are  strong. 
— We  have  declared  off  from  the  hidden  things  of  shame  ; 
we  walk  no  more  in  craft,  using  God's  word  deceitfully  ;  our 
one  supreme  purpose  has  been  to  set  forth  the  truth  of 
God  in  such  a  way  as  must  commend  itself  to  every  man's 
conscience  before  God. — These  allusions  to  ''deceit,"  dis- 
honesty, secretly  shameful  conduct — must  be  supposed  to 
refer  tacitly  to  the  policy  and  the  methods  of  his  enemies 
at  Corinth. — Paul  assumes  that  downright  honesty  of  heart 
is  the  first  qualification  for  the  gospel  minister. 


3U  3  CORINTHIANS —CHAP.  IV. 

3.  But  if  our  gospel  be  liid,  it  is  liid  to  them  that  are 
lost : 

4.  In  wliom  the  god  of  this  world  hath  blinded  the 
minds  of  them  which  believe  not,  lest  the  light  of 
the  glorions  gospel  of  Christ,  who  is  the  image  of  God, 
should  shine  unto  them. 

"  The  lost "  here  are  ''  them  that  perish  "  (as  in  2:  15), 
Paul's  descriptive  word  being  the  same  in  both  passages.  He 
knew  that  there  were  such,  to  whom  the  beauty  and  glory 
of  the  gospel  are  things  hidden,  not  seen.  The  reason  is 
that  Satan,  the  God  of  this  world,  has  blinded  their  un- 
believing minds  so  that  they  shall  not  see.  Satan  is  afraid 
of  that  transforming  gospel  light.  He  knows  but  too  well 
that  law  of  its  ti'ansforming  power  which  Paul  brings  out 
at  the  close  of  chap.  3.  So  he  heads  off  that  light  with 
his  utmost  tact,  blinding  the  mind,  fostering  unbelief, 
diverting  attention  to  the  fascinating  things  of  time  and 
sense — any  thing  to  shut  off  these  rays  of  the  light  of  Grod 
as  they  shine  in  Jesus.     , 

5.  For  we  preach  not  ourselves,  but  Christ  Jesus  the 
Lord  ;  and  ourselves  your  servants  for  Jesus'  sake. 

6.  For  God  who  commanded  the  light  to  shine  out 
of  darkness,  hath  shined  in  our  hearts,  to  give  the  light 
of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of 
Jes.us  Christ. 

In  V.  G,  we  have  a  beautiful  allusion  to  the  first  created 
light  which  God  spake  into  being  : — "  Let  there  be  light;" — 
and  light  was.  The  God  who  has  such  power  to  command 
light  to  shine  out  where  all  before  was  darkness,  hath 
shined  into  our  previously  dark  souls, — For  what  ends  and 
with  what  results  ? — To  give  that  intellectual,  spiritual 
light  which  consists  in  the  knowledge  of  God's  great  glory 
as  it  appears  in  the  person  of  Christ.  "  The  glory  of 
God  "  in  such  a  connection,  is  manifestly  his  gospel  love, 
which  is  at  once  his  chief  glory,  and  also  the  chief  revela- 
tion he  has  made  of  himself  in  the  gift  of  his  Son. 

1.  But  we  have  this  treasure  in  earthern  vessels,  that 
the  excellency  of  the  power  may  be  of  God,  and  not 
of  us. 


3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  IV.  315 

8.  We  are  troubled  on  every  side,  yet  not  distressed ; 
we  are  perplexed,  but  not  in  despair  ; 

9.  Persecuted,  but  not  forsaken ;  cast  down,  but  not 
destroyed ; 

10.  Always  bearing  about  in  tlie  body  tbe  dying  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,  that  the  life  also  of  Jesus  might  be 
made  manifest  in  our  body. 

11.  For  we  which  live  are  alway  delivered  unto 
death  for  Jesus'  sake,  that  the  life  also  of  Jesus  might 
be  made  manifest  in  our  mortal  flesh. 

12.  So  then  death  worketh  in  us,  but  life  in  you. 

Considering  this  light  of  divine  truth  thrown  into  our 
souls  by  his  mandate  as  a  treasure  to  be  kept,  we  have  it 
at  best  only  in  vessels  of  earthly  mold,  to  the  end  that  the 
greatness  of  his  power  may  appear  manifestly  to  be  of  God 
and  not  of  us.  This  result  (Paul  would  suggest)  makes  us 
content  and  even  happy  to  be  weak,  that  the  strength  of 
this  gospel  word  may  be  the  more  manifestly  of  God. 

In  vs.  8,  9,  we  find  a  series  of  antithetic  terms  setting 
fortli  that  Paul  and  his  associates  had  sore  afflictions,  yet 
afflictions  always  lield  within  such  limits  as  could  be  en- 
dui'ed.  The  well  poised  words  show  on  the  one  side  how 
far  these  troubles  reached,  and  on  the  other,  the  bounds 
beyond  which  they  did  not  pass. — Our  auth.  version  be- 
gins ; — '•'  troubled,  yet  not  distressed  ;"  but  Paul's  words 
allude,  not  to  his  feelings,  but  to  his  surroundings — i.e. 
not  to  what  is  subjective  to  himself,  but  to  what  is  objective. 
Better,  therefore,  "  Stricken,  but  not  straitened  insupera- 
bly"— the  first  word  being  the  common  one  for  tribula- 
tion, the  bruising  that  tore  the  flesh  ;  and  the  second, 
suggesting  the  idea  of  being  cramped,  cornered,  shut  up 
within  close  quarters  that  left  no  power  of  escape. — Next, 
*'  in  doubt,  but  not  in  despair,"  is  subjective — of  his  state 
of  mind — a  state  in  which  one  is  troubled  to  know  what 
to  do,  yet  not  thrown  out  of  his  wits — not  hopelessly  non- 
plussed or  disheartened. — "  Persecuted  "  of  men,  yet  not 
"forsaken  "of  God.  "  Cast  down,"  but  not  perishing — 
not  fatally  prostrated. — The  strong  expression — "  bearing 
about  in  the  body  the  dying  of  the  Lord  Jesus,"  means — 
always  exposed  to  a  violent  and  cruel  death  like  his,  so  that 
we  have  ever  present  a  sharp,  keen  sense  of  that  death,  and 


316  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  IV. 

feel  that  any  moment  we  may  follow  him  to  a  martyr's 
doom.  This  is  but  a  living  deatli — yet  we  endure  it  without 
a  murmur,  that  '•  the  life  of  Jesus"  may  be  the  more  abun- 
dantly manifest  in  us  ; — and  of  this  life,  ye  have  the  bene- 
fit. The  death  has  its  moral  effect  upon  us,  but  the  life 
upon  you.  Our  bodies  stand  the  peril ;  but  our  souls  take 
the  inspirations  of  heavenly  life  ;  and  of  tliis,  ye  have  the 
result  in  the  quickened  power  of  the  gospel  we  preach. — 
This  graiid  sentiment  is  too  good  to  be  passed  over  lightly 
— that  the  afflictions,  reaching  almost  to  deatli-agonies — be- 
ing actually  death-perils  always  hanging  over  them — were 
in  a  sense  death  to  them  but  life  to  the  cliurch,  their  con- 
verts at  Corinth.  Men  living  so  bore  into  their  work  a 
spiritual  power  instinct  with  the  life  of  Christ.  If  those 
persecutions  were  instigated  by  Satan,  he  outwitted  him- 
self ;  his  malice  served  only  to  baffle  his  own  schemes  and 
break  down  his  own  kingdom.  Jesus  breathed  into  his 
persecuted  servants  a  power  of  life  in  their  ministry  of  the 
gospel  which  Satan  was  powerless  to  resist. — This  explains 
why  Paul  gloried  in  his  infirmities,  that  the  power  of  Christ 
might  rest  on  him  the  more  abundantly  (2  Cor.  13:  9,  10). 
In  v.  11,  the  clause,  "  For  we,  though  living,  are 
always  bound  over  to  death  for  the  sake  of  Jesus," — looks 
to  the  case  of  men  death-doomed,  always  feeling,  therefore, 
that  they  are  under  sentence  of  death,  and  that  any  hour 
may  bring  the  execution. 

13.  We  having  the  same  spirit  of  faith,  according  as 
it  is  written,  I  believed,  and  therefore  have  I  spoken ; 
we  also  believe,  and  therefore  speak ; 

14.  Knowing  that  he  which  raised  up  the  Lord 
Jesus  shall  raise  iij)  us  also  bj  Jesus,  and  shall  present 
us  with  you. 

15.  For  all  things  are  for  your  sakes,  that  the  abun- 
dant grace  might  through  the  thanksgiving  of  many  re- 
dound to  the  glory  of  God. 

The  power  that  sustained  through  sucli  perils  was  that 
of  faith,  of  the  sort  which  Paul  finds  spoken  of  in  Ps. 
116:  10;  "I  believed  ;  therefore  have  I  spoken;  " — a  faith 
which  transmutes  unseen  things  into  realities.  This 
thought  shapes  the  course  of  remark  throughout  the  re- 
maining verses  of  the  chapter. — Coupled  with  that  simple 


3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  IV.  317 

power  of  faith  is  also  the  truth  which  we  know  and  be- 
lieve— viz.  that  He  who  raised  our  Lord  Jesus  from  the 
dead,  will  raise  up  us  also  and  present  us  in  triumph  before 
the  Father. — "Along  with  you,"  was  designed  to  awaken 
their  personal  interest  in  this  sublime  consummation. 
For  we  endure  all  this  affliction  for  your  sakes  no  less  than 
for  our  own,  that  this  abounding  grace  may  call  forth 
manifold  thanksgivings  from  the  many,  to  the  glory  of 
God. 

16.  For  whicli  cause  we  faint  not ;  but  tliougli  our 
outward  man  perish,  yet  the  inward  man  is  renewed  day 
by  day. 

17.  For  our  light  affliction,  which  is  but  for  a  mo- 
ment, worketh  for  us  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal 
weight  of  glory ; 

18.  While  we  look  not  at  the  things  whicli  are  seen, 
but  at  the  things  whicli  are  not  seen :  for  the  things 
which  are  seen  are  temporal ;  but  the  tilings  which  are 
not  seen  a7'e  eternal. 

Under  these  inspiring  considerations  we  cannot  faint 
through  discouragement  (the  same  word  as  in  v.  1.)  Though 
the  flesh,  the  outer  man,  be  wasting  away,  the  inner  man, 
the  spirit,  is  made  new,  with  reinvigorating  energy,  day  by 
day — the  soul  living  but  the  more  vigorously  for  the  dying 
of  the  body. 

V.  17  is  one  of  those  marvellous  2>assagesin  which  Paul's 
Greek  seems  to  defy  translation  into  corresponding  English. 
The  best  rendering  will  be  only  an  approximation  ; — e.g; 
— "  For  the  momentary  lightness  of  our  affliction  works 
out  for  us  an  eternal  weight  of  glory  surpassing  all  descrip- 
tion"— that  cannot  be  exaggerated  though  you  multiply 
hyperbole  into  hyperbole.  This  latter  expression  is  bor- 
rowed substantially  from  Paul. 

Then  (v.  18),  ''while  we  look  not"  etc.  is  precisely — 
we  being  supposed  to  look  not — i.  e.  provided  Ave  do  not 
put  our  eye  on  things  seen  but  only  on  things  unseen  ;  for 
the  things  seen  here  with  the  eye  of  flesh  are  momentary  ; 
but  the  things  not  seen  are  eternal.  This  puts  with  great 
force  the  point  of  "  walking  by  faith,  not  by  sight" — ever- 
more controlled  by  the  things  seen  with  the  eye  of  faith 
and  not  by  the  things  seen  with  the  eye  of  sense. 


318  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  IV. 

So  Paul  represents  the  spiritual  economy  and  profit  of 
these  light  afflictions.  They  are  a  very  small  consideration 
to  pay  for  an  infinite  treasure.  They  work  out  for  us  fruits 
of  immeasurable  glory  in  the  end.  Why  should  the  man 
of  faith  ever  shrink  from  any  endurance  of  suffering,  hard- 
ship, trial,  when  he  knows  the  reward  thereof  will  be  so 
immeasurably  vast,  reaching  onward  through  the  very 
eternity  of  our  future  being  ? 


-zm- 


CIIAPTEK  V. 

The  new  house  for  the  soul  after  death  (v.  1-4),  for 
which  we  long  and  labor,  seeking  to  be  accepted  of  God 
(v.  5-9) — with  our  eye  on  the  final  judgment  and  its  eter- 
nal awards  (v.  10)  ;  knowing  the  fearfulness  of  those  issues 
we  persuade  men  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come  (v.  11); 
which  accounts  for  our  intense  zeal  (v.  12,  13);  also  the 
love  of  Christ  constrains  us  and  why  (v.  14,  15);  and  be- 
gets a  new  life  (v.  16,  17);  the  ministry  being  to  recon- 
cile men  to  God  (v.  18,  19);  we,  his  ambassadors,  implore 
men  to  be  reconciled  through  the  atonement  made  in 
Christ  (v.  20,  21). 

1.  For  we  know  that,  if  our  earthly  lionse  of  this 
tabernacle  were  dissolved,  we  have  a  building  of  God,  a 
house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens. 

2.  For  in  this  we  groan,  earnestly  desiring  to  be 
clothed  upon  with  our  house  which  is  from  heaven  : 

3.  If  so  be  that  being  clothed  we  shall  not  be  found 
naked. 

4.  For  we  that  are  in  this  tabernacle  do  groan,  being 
burdened:  not  for  that  we  would  be  unclothed,  but 
clothed  upon,  that  mortality  might  be  swallowed  up  of 
life. 

Notice  the  logical  connection  with  the  closing  verses 
of  the  preceding  chapter  ; — We  look  steadfastly  away  unto 
those  unseen  things  of  the  eternal  state — -for  we  all  know 
that  when  our  earthly  tent  shall  be  taken  down,  we  have  a 
building  of  God — quite  another  and  different  house  from 


3  CORINTHIANS.-CHAP.  V.  319 

this — not  hand-made  as  this,  nor  of  transient  duration,  but 
eternal  in  the  heavens. — "  We  know  that  ?/," — but  this 
"  if  "  implies  not  the  least  uncertainty  as  to  the  fact,  and 
might  better  be  rendered  when  j — whenever  this  earthly 
investiture  of  our  souls — a  tent-like  structure — shall  be 
struck,  like  the  tents  of  the  Arabs,  for  removal,  then  we 
have  another  in  readiness — not  shall  have  at  some  day  yet 
more  remote,  but  have  (present  tense)  another,  coming  di- 
rectly from  God,  otherwise  than  through  the  agency  of  such 
natural  law  as  builds  this  earthly  tent. 

For  (v.  2)  in  this  {i.e.  while  in  this  tent)  we  groan  with 
intense  desire  to  be  clothed  with  this  new  soul-covering 
which  is  from  heaven — inasmuch  as  being  thus  clothed, 
we  shall  not  be  found  naked  at  the  final  day,  for  to  this 
day  we  must  suppose  the  "  being  found"  to  refer. — "  For 
we,  being  in  this  [frail]  tent,  are  groaning  under  a  souse 
of  burden  [the  tent  being  at  once  heavy  and  frail] — not 
that  we  wish  to  be  unclothed  but  to  be  clothed,  far  better, 
so  that  the  mortal  shall  be  swallowed  up  into  and  by  the 
new  life. 

We  defer  the  further  consideration  of  the  great  ques- 
tions here  involved,  until  the  whole  passage  shall  be  fully 
before  us. 

5.  ISTow  lie  tliat  hath  wrought  iis  for  the  selfsame 
thing  is  God,  who  also  hath  given  unto  ns  the  earnest 
of  the  Spirit. 

The  improved  texts  omits  '"'also'  after  "^ who,"  read- 
ing— "who  hath  given  unto  us  the  earnest"  [first-fruits] 
'•of  the  Spirit." 

The  great  question  of  interpretation  hero,  is  the  sense 
of  the  words — "'wrought  us  for  this  very  thing." — Is  this 
in  the  physical  sense  of  constituting  our  physical  nature 
for  this  new  and  great  change ;  or  in  the  sjnritual  sense 
of  awakening  these  intense  and  heavenly  aspirations  for 
this  future  blessedness  ? — Either  is  supposable,  and  good 
critics  are  divided  between  them. 

I  must  favor  the  spiritual  rather  than  the  physical 
sense — because  the  drift  of  thought  is  upon  the  "earnest 
desire"  (v.  2);  the  groaning  under  the  burden  and  the 
longing  therefore  for  the  better  house  (v.  6) ;  and  more- 
over, the  spiritual  sense  is  certainly  suggested  by  the  ap- 
pended clause — "  who  hath  given  us  the  earnest  of  the 


320  2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  V. 

Spirit" — i.e.  thus  moving  our  souls  to  these  aspirations. 
On  the  other  hand,  giving  us  the  earnest  of  the  Spirit  has 
no  natural  relation  to  the  physical  organization  under 
which  we  may  be  supposed  to  be  constituted  for  such  a 
transformation. 

6.  Therefore  wo  are  always  confident,  knowing  that, 
whilst  we  are  at  home  in  the  body,  we  are  absent  from 
the  Lord : 

7.  (For  Ave  w^alk  by  faith,  not  by  sight :) 

8.  We  are  confident,  1  say.,  and  willing  rather  to  be 
absent  from  the  body,  and  to  be  present  with  the  Lord. 

9.  Wherefore  we  labour,  that,  whether  present  or 
absent,  we  may  be  accepted  of  him. 

Here  for  the  first  time  in  this  passage,  Paul  uses  the 
word  "body"  [soma]  instead  of  '"house,"  '"tent"  ["taber- 
nacle"], "building." — "While  at  home  in  the  body" — 
occupying  it  as  our  house — we  are  out  of  home — away  from 
home,  as  to  the  Lord,  in  the  sense  of  being  far  from  him. 
Paul's  Greek  word  rendered  "  absent"  is  more  significant 
and  comprehensive  than  our  word  absent. 

In  V.  7,  "for"  makes  logical  connection,  not  with 
being  "at  home  in  the  body,"  but  only  with  being  "ab- 
sent from  the  Lord  ;"  for  as  to  the  former,  we  walk  with- 
out the  help  of  faith  ;  for  the  latter  we  depend  on  our  faith 
wholly. — With  these  certainties  that  come  to  us  through 
faith,  we  are  not  only  confident,  but  well-pleased,  delighted, 
rather  to  be  away  from  home  in  the  sense  of  being  out  of 
this  body,  and  to  be  at  home — before  the  Lord.  "  Where- 
fore we  labor  " — or  better,  we  are  ambitious,  aspiring  ;  we 
make  it  a  point  of  honor,  to  be  accepted  before  him — ob- 
jects of  his  good  pleasure — whether  in  this  body  or  out  of  it. 

The  legitimate  sense  of  Paul's  several  words  in  this  re- 
markable passage  being  now  before  us,  we  may  profitably 
give  special  attention  to  the  truths  he  here  assumes  and 
teaches. 

The  following  points  seem  to  be  unquestionable. 

1.  That  he  speaks  of  a  material  hody  as  a  home  for  the 
soni,  giving  to  it  the  names — "Our  earthly  house";  "'  this 
tabernacle";  "a  building  of  God";  "a  house  not  made 
with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens  ";  "  our  house  which  is 
from  heaven." 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  V  321 

2.  That  this  is  to  be  taJcen  on  immediately  at  death. 
He  makes  a  special  point  of  this,  for  he  says,  we  recoil 
from  being  found  naked  [without  any  sort  of  body],  and 
that  our  great  desire  is,  "not  to  be  unclothed,  i.  e.  left 
strictly  disembodied,  with  no  body  investing  our  spirit ; 
but  to  be  clothed,  that  this  mortal  may  develop  into  real, 
abiding  life. 

3.  He  certainly  assumes  that  this  second  body — the 
one  from  heaven,  made  of  God — is  a  great  advance  upon 
the  present  one,  and  therefore  an  object  of  longing  desire. 

4.  It  may  be  noticed  that  in  tlie  first  five  verses,  Paul 
refrains  from  using  the  word  "body"  [soma],  but  chooses 
other  descriptive  terms  ; — "  earthly  house  ";  "  tabernacle  "; 
"  building,"  etc. — But  yet  more  important  is  the  entire 
omission  of  the  word  "resurrection"  and  of  all  allusion 
to  that  great  fact  of  our  future  being. 

Hence  it  would  seem  that  Paul  has  fully  taught  us  here 
that  the  state  intermediate  between  death  and  the  final 
resurrection  is  not  precisely  a  disembodied  one,  a  state  of 
soul-life  with  no  bodily  clothing,  house,  building  ;  but 
that  God  provides  for  the  soul  immediately  at  death,  a 
material  investing,  somewhat  analogous  to  this  earthly 
body. 

But  on  another  question,  viz.,  what  relations  this  sec- 
ond body — that  of  the  intermediate  state — bears  to  the 
resurrection  body,  the  abode  of  the  soul  after  the  judg- 
ment, he  has  said  nothing  that  is  absolutely  explicit. 

It  is  remarkable  that  here  is  no  allusion  in  terms  to  the 
resurrection.  There  is  nothing  bearing  definitely  on  the 
question  whether  the  resurrection  body  is  to  be  yet  a  third, 
distinct  from  the  second  brought  to  view  here,  or  whether 
it  be  identically  the  same.  This  one,  here  brought  spec- 
ially to  view,  is  said  to  be  made  directly  by  God — i.  e.  un- 
der laws  of  divine  agency  Avhich  leave  out  human  hands  ; 
and  also,  to  be  "  eternal  in  the  heavens." — Are  we  to  as- 
sume such  emphasis  upon  the  word  "  eternal "  as  would 
foreclose  all  change  at  the  point  of  the  general  resurrec- 
tion and  final  judgment  ? 

10.  For  we  must  all  appear  before  the  judgment  seat 
of  Christ ;  that  every  one  may  receive  the  things  done  in 
his  body,  according  to  that  he  hath  done,  whether  it  he 
good  or  bad. 


322  2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  V. 

This  comes  logically  from  onr  earnest  desire  to  be  ac- 
cepted of  God.  We  labor  with  supreme  endeavor  to  be 
always  well-pleasing  to  God,  for  of  necessity  we  must  all 
appear  before  the  Judgment  seat  of  Christ,  each  to  receive 
his  final  award  of  bliss  or  woe  according  to  his  deeds  while 
in  the  body — literally,  the  things  by  means  of  the  body 
[dia] — in  connection  with  the  body — showing  that  the 
issues  of  that  momentous  day  hinge  precisely  upon  this 
earthly  life — its  deeds  of  good  or  evil.  Such  is  the  doctrine 
of  all  scripture  ; — e.  g.  Matt.  25  :  31-46  and  Rom.  14  : 
10-12  and  2  :  6-16  and  Rev.  22  :  12. 

11.  Knowing  therefore  the  terror  of  the  Lord,  we 
persuade  men ;  but  we  are  made  manifest  unto  God ; 
and  I  trust  also  are  made  manifest  in  your  consci- 
ences. 

12.  For  we  commend  not  ourselves  again  unto  you, 
but  give  you  occasion  to  glory  on  our  behalf,  that  ye 
may  have  somewhat  to  answer  them  which  glory  in  ap- 
pearance, and  not  in  heart. 

13.  For  whether  we  be  beside  ourselves,  it  is  to  God: 
or  whether  we  be  sober,  it  is  for  your  cause. 

'•'Knowing  the  terror  of  the  Lord" — the  fearfulness  of 
such  a  judgment  before  his  bar,  the  tremendous,  eternal 
issues  pending  upon  it — Ave  do  our  utmost  to  persuade  men 
to  flee  from  this  wrath  to  come,  and  be  at  peace  with  the 
Great  Judge  ere  it  be  too  late. 

"  But  we  are  made  manifest  unto  God  ;"  He  knows  us 
perfectly  ;  all  our  work  is  before  him.  We  must  suppose 
Paul  to  say  this  with  his  eye  upon  the  faction  in  Corinth 
who  were  maligning  his  good  name  and  his  work.  To  their 
conscience  he  hoped  he  could  appeal.  He  speaks  in  self- 
vindication,  more  to  aid  his  friends  in  standing  for  gospel 
truth  and  for  its  faithful  ministers  than  for  m.ere  self-de- 
fence. 

In  V.  13.  we  have  the  nearly  obsolete  word  "  whether  " 
in  the  sense  of  if.  If  it  be  charged  against  us  that  we  are 
unduly  excited — ["  much  learning  hath  made  thee  mad"] 
it  is  due  to  our  great  zeal  for  God.  If  on  the  other  hand, 
we  seem  very  moderate,  even  tame  ;  it  is  all  for  your  sake, 
to  obviate  the  scandal  against  us  on  the  other  tack. — So 
men  objected  against  Christ  and  John  Baptist : — one  ate 


3  CORINTHIANS.-CHAP.  V.  323 

where  he  ought  not  to;  and  the  other  did  not  eat  at  all  to  suit 
them.  Some  men  thought  Paul  too  much  in  earnest — too 
impassioned  ;  and  others  criticised  him  as  too  dull.  Paul 
gives  his  reasons  for  these  apparently  extreme  manifesta- 
tions.— Paul  should  not  be  suj^posed  to  admit  that  he  was 
really  '•  beside  himself."  He  says  only — If  it  should  seem 
so  to  you,  this  explains  my  great  earnestness. 

14.  For  the  love  of  Christ  constraineth  ns  ;  because 
we  thus  judge,  that  if  one  died  for  all,  then  were  all 
dead : 

15.  And  that  he  died  for  all,  that  they  which  live 
should  not  henceforth  live  unto  themselves,  but  unto 
liim  which  died  for  them  and  rose  again. 

Yet  another  reason — the  great  reason  why  Paul's  heart 
is  on  fire  in  his  gospel  work  :  The  love  of  Christ  constrains 
him — grasps  him  ;  holds  him  fast,  and  gives  him  no  rest — 
as  his  word  seems  to  suggest. — Is  this  •'•'  love  of  Christ," 
Paul's  love  of  Christ,  or  Christ's  love  for  him  ? — Primarily, 
the  latter  : — the  love  of  Christ  for  Paul  as  the  context 
plainly  shows — that  love  which  moved  Christ  to  die  for 
our  lost  race.  Ultimately,  of  course,  this  love  of  Christ 
begets  responsive  love  toward  Christ  which  Paul  feels  in 
the  very  depths  of  his  soul. — From  the  fact  that  Christ 
died  for  all,  Paul  assumes — (a)  That  these  ''  all "  were 
utterly,  hopelessly  dead,  lost  beyond  self- recovery; — and 
(b)  That  one  of  Christ's  definite  objects  in  his  death  for 
sinners  was  this  : — to  move  those  who  have  life  by  and 
through  his  death  to  live  no  more  unto  themselves  but  unto 
him  because  he  has  died  for  them  and  has  risen  again  to 
serve  them  still  by  his  intercessions  in  their  behalf  above. 
Christ  has  precious  work  for  them  to  do  in  extending  the 
blessings  of  his  death  to  the  greatest  possible  number.  He 
calls  them  into  his  kingdom  and  gives  them  personal  sal- 
vation that  they  may  help  onward  this  mighty  endeavor — 
the  saving  of  lost  souls. 

Knowing  how  this  great  enterprise  is  in  the  mind  and 
on  the  heart  of  Christ ;  appreciating  Christ's  purpose  in 
giving  him  salvation,  he  can  do  no  less  than  consecrate  to 
this  gospel  work  his  best  and  utmost  energies. 

16.  Wherefore  henceforth  know  we  no  man  after 


321  2  CORINTHIANS. -CHAP.  V. 

the  flesh  :  yea,  though  we  have  known  Christ  after  the 
flesh,  yet  now  henceforth  know  we  kiin  no  more. 

17.  Therefore  if  any  man  he  in  Christ,  lie  is  a  new 
creature  :  old  things  are  passed  away ;  behold,  all  things 
are  become  new. 

Henceforth  we  think  little  of  men  as  to  their  personal 
and  earthly  relations.  We  think  of  and  care  for  men 
only  as  to  their  soul's  salvation. 

To  "  know  men  after  the  flesh,"  is  to  look  at  them  on 
their  fleshly  side,  in  the  line  of  honor,  distinction,  profit 
from  their  acquaintance  etc.,  etc.,  and  over  against  this 
lies  the  knowing  them  as  immortal  beings,  to  be  saved, 
or  to  perish.     The  latter  fills  the  vision  of  the  apostle. 

Correspondingly,  "to  know  Christ  after  the  flesh"  is 
to  take  those  carnal  views  of  his  reign  as  Messiah  which 
were  current  among  the  Jews.  This  was  seeing  Christ 
from  a  fleshly  point  of  view — imputing  to  him  worldly 
aims  and  objects  which  were  never  real  in  his  mind  but 
Avhich  were  present  with  great  power  in  the  mistaken  souls 
of  Paul's  countrymen. 

"  If  any  man  be  in  Christ" — this  most  expressive 
phrase  signifying  that  he  is  absorbed  in  love  to  Christ  ; 
consecrated  to  the  service  of  Christ ;  drawn  into  deep 
communion  with  the  Spirit  of  Christ ;  living  in  the  sphere 
of  Christ,  so  that  he  knows  and  cares  for  little  else. — So 
being  "  in  Christ,"  there  is  in  his  case  "  a  new  creation  " — 
the  precise  sense  of  Paul's  words.  The  old  things  have 
passed  away  ;  behold,  all  have  become  new.  The  old  life 
with  its  motives,  its  affections,  its  impulses — the  things  it 
loved  and  the  things  it  did  not  love — all  have  passed  away, 
and  a  new  life  ensues. — Paul's  words  come  apparently  from 
Isa.  43  :  18,  19,  "  Remember  no  more  the  former  things, 
neither  consider  the  things  of  old.  Behold,  I  will  do  a 
new  thing." 

18.  And  all  things  are  of  God,  who  hath  reconciled 
us  to  himself  by  Jesus  Christ,  and  hath  given  to  us  the 
ministry  of  reconciliation : 

19.  To  wit,  that  God  was  in  Christ,  reconciling  the 
world  unto  himself  not  imputing  their  trespasses  unto 
them ;  and  hath  committed  unto  us  the  word  of  recon- 
ciliation. 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  V.  325 

20.  Kow  then  we  are  ambassadors  for  Christ,  as 
though  God  did  beseech  ?/ow  by  us :  we  pray  yoit,  in 
in  Christ's  stead,  be  ye  reconciled  to  God. 

All  these  great  results  are  of  God  as  the  source  of  the 
power  that  produces  them — a  truth  put  in  fewest  words 
yet  of  immense  significance.  All  human  salvation  comes 
from  him.  His  alone  was  the  love  that  gave  it  birth  in 
the  gift  of  his  Son,  and  his  alone  is  the  love  that  makes 
this  gift  effective  by  the  second  great  gift — his  Spirit.  It 
is  lie  who  hath  reconciled  us  to  himself  by  Jesus  Christ, 
calling  us  back  from  our  rebellion  into  willing  obedience 
and  love  ;  (1)  By  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  for  our  sins,  thus 
making  forgiveness  possible  ; — and  (2).  By  this  manifes- 
tation of  his  love,  making  repentance  actual. 

To  us,  his  apostles  and  ministers,  God  has  committed 
this  ministry  of  reconciliation,  to  persuade  men  to  be  rec- 
onciled to  God  ; — to  testify  that  God  is  reconciling  the 
world  to  himself  in  and  through  Christ,  no  more  imput- 
ing to  them  their  sins,  but  freely  and  perfectly  forgiving. — 
The  collocation  of  the  words — "  God  was  in  Christ  etc." — 
I  think  is  misleading — the  precise  sense  being  not  that  God 
was  in  Christ,  but  that  he  was  reconciling  the  world  in 
and  by  means  of  Christ. 

The  fact,  so  precious  to  Paul  that  he  repeats  it  again 
and  again,  is  that  God  has  given  to  his  servants  this  min- 
istry of  reconciliation,  taking  them  into. service  as  his 
ambassadors  to  carry  into  effect  the  treaty  of  peace  already 
negotiated ;  i.  e.  to  beseech  and  implore  sinners  to  be  re- 
conciled unto  God  on  the  basis  of  the  proposed  peace.  It 
is  as  if  God's  own  voice  rang  through  their  lips — as  if  they 
spake  words  for  God,  on  his  authority  and  at  his  instance, 
when  they  besought  men  to  desist  from  their  sins  and  yield 
their  souls  in  loving  obedience  to  their  heavenly  Father. 

21.  For  he  hath  made  him  to  he  sin  for  us,  who  knew 
no  sin ;  that  we  might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God 
in  him. 

Provision  is  made  for  this  reconciliation  in  the  sacrifice 
of  Christ  for  our  sins — a  fact  which  logically  connects  this 
last  verse  with  those  that  next  precede. — Eeconciliation 
to  God  in  and  through  Christ  is  made  possible  (Paul  would 


326  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  V. 

say)  because  ['-'for"]  "  God  hath  made  him  to  be  sin  for 
us"  who  was  not  at  all  a  sinner  himself. 

Here  the  precise  sense  in  which  God  made  Christ  to 
be  sin  for  us,  becomes  a  vital  question. — It  certainly  can- 
not mean  that  he  made  him  to  be  a  sinner  for  us.  It  can- 
not mean  that  he  made  him  in  any  abstract  sense  to  be  a 
sin  per  se — this  being  at  once  impossible,  and  utterly  ir- 
relevant because  useless  and  even  ruinous  toward  any 
agency  for  human  salvation. 

On  the  positive  side,  we  have  to  consider — (1.)  The 
construction — a  sin-offering — a  sacrifice  for  sin — with  re- 
ference to  the  sin-offerings  in  the  Mosaic  system. 

The  chief  objection  to  this  is  that  no  other  case  of 
such  usage  of  this  Greek  word  "sin"  [amartia]  appears 
elsewhere. — But  this  objection  does  not  seem  to  me  insu- 
perable. This  case  of  its  use  in  this  sense  may  be  an  out- 
growth of  the  Mosaic  sacrifices,  present  to  Paul's  thought 
and  shaping  this  expression.  It  might  be  legitimate  to  use 
the  word  so  once  and  but  once.  The  suggestive  influence 
that  brought  it  to  Paul's  thought  here  is  obvious — too  ob- 
vious to  make  the  repetition  of  such  cases  of  usage  at  all 
necessary. 

(3.)  The  phrase  may  bear  this  general  sense  : — God  hath 
caused  [suffered]  him  to  be  treated  as  a  sinner ;  i.  e.  by 
"  not  sparing  his  own  Son  but  delivering  him  up  for  us 
all "  (Rom.  8.  32) ;  "  who  was  delivered  for  our  offences" 
(Rom.  4  :  25)  ;  '"'  delivered  by  the  determinate  counsel  of 
God  "  (Act  2  :  23).  Less  than  this,  the  words  cannot 
mean. 

The  order  of  Paul's  words  and  his  use  of  the  negative 
("knew  oio  sin")  are  both  deserving  of  special  notice. 
Paul  puts  the  words  in  this  order  : — "  Him  not  knowing 
sin,  He  [God]  hath  made  sin  for  us  "etc. — an  order  which 
indicates  that  the  fact  of  Christ's  sinlessness  was  purposely 
made  prominent. — Then,  moreover,  his  choice  of  the  nega- 
tive particle  for  "  not  "  is  specially  suggestive.  Unlike  our 
English,  the  Greek  has  two  negative  particles  ;  the  one  ab- 
solute ;  the  other  somewhat  variously  qualified — often  a 
hypothetical  negative,  indicating  that  the  negation  is  as- 
sumed, supposed.  In  the  present  case,  the  special  sense  of 
this  negative  particle  bears  us  back  to  the  thought  of  God 
and  implies  that  while  well  aivare  that  Christ  was  sinless, 
he  yet  suffered  him  to  be  treated  as  a  sinner,  or,  as  the  sense 


2  CORINTHIANS— CHAP.  V.  327 

may  be,  made  liim  a  sin-offering.  Tliis  way  of  putting 
the  case  implies  that  God  must  have  had  very  special  rea- 
sons for  treating  his  own  Son  as  a  sinner  when  he  knew  so 
well  that  he  was  personally  sinless. 

That  we  might  be  righteous  before  God  stands  antithet- 
ically over  against  his  being  sin  for  us.  Treated  as  right- 
eous must  certainly  be  implied  here  ;  while  the  actually 
becoming  righteous  by  being  saved  from  sin  is  a  sentiment 
fully  in  harmony  with  the  genius  of  the  gospel  scheme. 
Such  harmony  does  not  prove  that  this  spiritual  trans- 
formation is  the  thing  affirmed  here.  It  does  prove,  how- 
ever, that  no  objection  can  lie  against  this  construction  on 
the  score  of  its  beins:  not  true  in  fact. 


-yrjr^ — 


CHAPTER  VI. 

In  self-defence  against  the  hostile  faction  at  Corinth 
Paul  shows  how  he  has  fulfilled  his  high  commission  as 
ambassador  for  Christ  (v.  1-10)  ;  the  story  fills  both  his 
mouth  and  his  heart,  and  he  wishes  their  hearts  might  be 
full  likewise  (v.  11-13)  :  he  warns  them  against  intimate 
social  connection  with  unbelievers,  and  exhorts  to  a  pure 
life  and  a  close  walking  with  God  (v.  14-18). 

1.  We  then,  as  workers  together  with  him,  beseech 
you  also  that  ye  receive  not  the  grace  of  God  in  vain. 

2.  (For  he  saith,  I  have  heard  thee  in  a  time  accepted, 
and  in  the  day  of  salvation  have  I  succoured  thee  :  be- 
hold, now  is  the  accepted  time ;  behold,  now  is  the  day 
of  salvation. 

The  Italic  words,  "  with  him,"  having  no  correspond- 
ing words  in  Greek,  the  qiiestion  is  open  whether  the 
"working  together"  of  the  apostles  ["we"]  is  with  each 
other,  or  with  God  and  Christ.  The  obvious  allusion  to 
V.  18-20  [previous  chapter]  decides  in  favor  of  the  latter 
— the  thought  being  of  cooperative  work  with  God  and 
with  Jesus  Christ. 

In  this  strain  of  exhortation,  Paul  would  plead  in  be- 
half of  his  Divine  Master,  that  they  should  not  allow  the 


328  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VI. 

offers  of  divine  mercy  to  be  made  to  them  in  vain.  '"'Grace  " 
here  can  mean  nothing  less  or  other  than  God's  kind  offers 
of  mercy  through  Christ, — Paul  enforces  his  appeal  by 
words  of  the  Lord  out  of  Isaiah  (49:  8) — which  words  as- 
sume that  there  is  with  God  "  an  accepted  time  and  a  day 
of  salvation  "  in  which  he  bends  his  ear,  graciously,  ten- 
derly, to  human  prayer.  Paul's  own  comment  upon  those 
words  is — '*'  Behold,  the  accepted  time  "  for  you  is  noiv;  the 
day  of  salvation  is  iioiv  ! — An  ambassador  of  peace  from  his 
Master,  he  insists  upon  immediate  and  decisive  action. 
Let  your  heart  welcome  the  offered  grace  to  day  !  Now  is 
your  time  !  The  King  Eternal,  the  Almighty  God,  should 
not  be  trifled  with  ! 

3.  Giving  no  offence  in  any  thing,  that  the  ministry 
be  not  blamed : 

4.  But  in  all  things  approving  ourselves  as  the  min- 
isters of  God,  in  much  patience,  in  afliictions,  in  necessi- 
ties, in  distresses, 

5.  In  stripes,  in  imprisonments,  in  tumults,  in  labours, 
in  watchings,  in  fastings  ; 

6.  By  pureness,  by  knowledge,  by  longsuffering,  by 
kindness,  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  love  unfeigned  ; 

7.  By  the  word  of  truth,  by  the  ^Dower  of  God,  by 
the  armour  of  righteousness  on  the  right  hand  and  on 
the  left ; 

8.  By  honour  and  dishonour,  by  evil  report  and  good 
report :  as  deceivers,  and  yet  true  ; 

9.  As  unknown,  and  yet  well  known ;  as  dying,  and, 
behold,  we  live  ;  as  chastened,  and  not  killed  ; 

10.  As  sorrowful,  yet  alway  rejoicing ;  as  poor,  yet 
making  many  rich ;  as  having  nothing,  and  yet  possess- 
ino;  all  thino;s. 

In  all  these  particulars  Paul  bears  witness  to  the  way 
he  has  labored  in  the  gospel  to  avoid  giving  offense  or 
causing  any  man  to  stumble  over  an  objectionable  minis- 
tration of  the  gospel,  seeking  in  all  things  to  approve  him- 
self as  a  worthy  servant  of  God. 

In  the  long  series  of  descriptive  terms  which  follow, 
Paul  uses  the  same  preposition  "in"  ["en"]  through 
verses  4,  5,  6,  and  the  first  two  clauses  of  v.  7,  so  that  we 
should  read  literally  (v.  6,  7)  "in  purity,  in  knowledge, 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VI.  329 

in  long-suffering  "  etc.  "  in  the  word  of  truth  ;  in  the  power 
of  God." — At  this  point  his  preposition  is  changed  to  one 
having  the  sense,  hy  or  through  [dia]  by  means  of  the  armor 
of  righteousness,  right  and  left-handed  ;  through  honor 
and  through  disgrace ;  through  evil  report  and  good. — 
Then  follows  a  series  of  seven  similar  antithetic  clauses, 
the  first  word  having  before  it  "as"  [as] — "as  deceivers 
and  yet  true"  etc.  In  this  series  the  word  "as"  in  some 
cases  means  only  that  they  are  treated  so — are  assumed  to 
be  such  ;  while  in  other  cases,  it  manifestly  carries  the  ad- 
mission, or  even  as  the  case  may  be,  the  declaration  that 
they  really  are  so — the  nature  of  the  case  being  the  only 
criterion  for  deciding  in  which  sense  the  Avord  should  be 
taken. — Thus  "  as  deceivers  "  means — treated  as  deceivers; 
disowned,  discarded  as  dishonest  men,  yet  really  most  sin- 
cere and  truthful.  "  As  unknown  " — more  than  strangers  ; 
as  men  not  fit  to  be  recognized  among  respectable  people — 
yet  well  known  and  truly  worthy  of  esteem.  "  As  dying" 
— which  looks,  not  to  their  being  reputed  so,  but  to  the 
actuality  of  their  case.  They  live  a  dying  life,  in  the  sense 
of  being  perpetually  exposed  to  martyrdom.  As  Paul 
wrote  (1  Cor.  15:  31).  "I  protest  to  you,  I  die  daily." 
Yet  through  God's  preserving  hand,  behold  we  live. — "As 
chastened,"  really  so  (not  in  any  reputed  sense),  yet  not 
killed,  for  we  still  survive  these  afflictions.  "'As  sorrow- 
ful " — really  so  and  not  so  merely  in  their  estimation  ; 
always  sorrowful  under  burdens  of  grief  over  the  sins  of 
men  ;  "yet  always  rejoicing,"  for  the  joy  of  the  Lord 
is  our  everlasting  strength.  When  does  the  Lord  ever  fail 
to  give  us  tears  of  joy,  blending  with  our  teai's  of  sorrow  ; 
songs  in  the  heart,  welling  up  in  our  sorest  griefs  ! — "'  As 
poor  ; "  yet  this  being  poor  was  rather  a  fact  of  reality  than 
a  condition  merely  imputed  by  their  enemies  to  their  dis- 
honor. Personally  and  financially,  they  were  poor  men  ; 
but  they  were  enriching  many  with  the  best  of  all  riches. 
So  the  last  of  these  clauses  ; — "'  as  having  nothing,"  and  yet 
possessing  all  things  ;  really  pennyless  ;  but  who  ever  had 
such  treasures  as  they  ?  Paul  carried  in  his  soul  a  precious 
sense  of  being  rich, — for  was  not  God  his  own  Father,  and 
heaven  his  own  inheritance,  and  himself  just  on  the  point 
of  entering  upon  its  everlasting  possession  ? — The  whole 
passage  is  instinct  with  living  thought  expressed  with  tell- 
in  ^  force. 


330  2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VI. 

11.  O  ye  Corintliians,  our  mouth  is  open  unto  you, 
our  heart  is  enlarged. 

12.  Ye  are  not  straitened  in  us,  but  ye  are  straitened 
in  3^our  own  bowels. 

13.  Now  for  a  recompense  in  the  same,  (I  speak  as 
unto  my  children,)  be  ye  also  enlarged. 

No  ■wonder  Paul  bad  a  sense  of  an  open  mouth  and  a 
full  bursting  heart,  as  these  great  facts  of  his  life-experience 
came  swelling  up  and  demanding  utterance.  Ye  are  in 
no  wise  straitened  in  ns  ;  friends  of  larger  heart  and  richer 
love,  ye  have  never  had  : — 0  might  your  own  heart  be  en- 
larged as  much  and  warmed  as  deeply  !  If  there  be  strait- 
ness  any  where,  it  is  in  your  souls — not  in  ours.  Now  as  a 
compensation  to  us  for  all  our  outpourings  of  love  and 
labor,  I  bog  you  to  let  your  hearts  be  enlarged  ;  for  ye 
are  truly  my  children,  and  I  must  plead  with  you  as  such, 

14.  Be  ye  not  unequally  yoked  together  with  unbe- 
believers :  for  what  fellowship  hath  righteousness  with 
unrighteousness  ?  and  Avhat  communion  hath  light  with 
darkness  ? 

15.  And  what  concord  hath  Christ  with  Belial  ?  or 
what  part  hath  he  that  believeth  with  an  infidel  ? 

16.  And  what  agreement  hath  the  temple  of  God 
Avith  idols  ?  for  ye  are  the  temple  of  the  living  God  ;  as 
God  hath  said,  I  will  dwell  in  them,  and  w\alk  in  them; 
and  I  will  be  their  God,  and  they  shall  be  my  people. 

All  this  bears  against  intimate  association  with  idolaters 
— one  of  the  chief  dangers  incident  to  their  christian  life. 
— "Unequally  yoked"  as  when  the  husbandman  yokes  ox 
and  ass  together.  Never  subject  yourselves  to  such  unsuit- 
able yoking  with  unbelievers.  The  question  of  interpreta- 
tion here  will  be  whether  this  has  special  reference  to  the 
marriage  relation,  or  rather,  an  unrestricted  application  to 
social  and  business  life  generally.  The  latter  corresponds 
best  with  the  strain  of  the  whole  passage,  particularly  with 
the  exliortation  (v.  17)  ;  "Come  out  from  among  them 
and  be  ye  separate  "  etc.  The  spirit  of  the  passage  would 
forbid  unequal  yoking  in  the  marriage  relation  much  more 
("a  fortiori ").  If  in  the  ordinary  associations  of  life,  they 
ought  to  beware  of  dangerous  intimacies  with  idolaters ; 


fl  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VI.  331 

then  surely  intermarriage  between  believers  and  idolaters 
could  by  no  means  be  tolerated. 

Note  the  argument ; — What  holding  and  sharing  in 
common  can  there  be  between  righteousness  and  unright- 
eousness ?  What  communion  of  light  with  darkness  ? 
What  harmony  of  Christ  with  Belial  ?  What  part,  or 
share,  can  a  believer  have  wdth  an  infidel  ?  What  agree- 
ment [cooperation]  has  the  temple  of  God  with  idols  ? — 
This  last  is  a  specially  pertinent  question  ;  for  ye  are  truly 
the  temple  of  the  living  God,  inasmuch  as  God  himself 
has  said — ''I  will  dwell  in  them  and  walk  in  them ;  i.e. 
will  act,  energize  ;  be  a  living  power  within  their  souls." 
I  will  be  a  God  to  them,  and  they  shall  be  a  people  for 
me. — Of  these  things,  both  the  thought  and  the  phrase 
had  come  down  from  the  ancient  theocratic  life  of 
Israel,  reproduced  in  the  old  prophets  with  exceeding 
richness  of  promise.  In  Moses  (Lev.  26,  11,  12.)  we 
read  ;  "I  will  set  my  tabernacle  among  you,  and  my  soul 
shall  not  abhor  you.  And  I  will  walk  among  you  and  will 
be  your  God,  and  ye  shall  be  my  people." — Through  the 
prophet  Jeremiah,  the  Lord  not  only  repeated  this  prom- 
ise, but  sent  it  onward  into  the  gospel  age  with  fresh 
sanction  : — ^'  The  days  come  that  I  will  make  a  new  cove- 
nant with  Israel  and  Judah  :  I  will  put  my  law  in  their 
inward  parts  and  write  it  in  their  heart  ;  I  will  be  their 
God,  and  they  shall  be  my  people." — Now  with  such  a 
Presence  in  their  souls,  shall  they  invite  into  the  same 
temple  of  their  conscious  heart,  Belial  and  idol-wor- 
shipping men  !  Shall  they  experiment  to  mix  darkness 
with  this  light ;  foulness  with  this  purity  ;  sin  with  this 
righteousness  ?  Could  they  not  see  how  utterly  incongruous 
this  would  be — how  practically  impossible  ?  For  God  will 
never  be  a  party  in  such  experimenting.  The  moment 
they  open  their  heart  to  Belial,  the  Spirit  of  God  is  gone  ! 

The  great  moral  force  of  this  appeal  lies  in  the  utter 
and  inevitable  antagonism  between  these  opposites.  Fel- 
lowship, commmunion,  concord,  cooioei'ation,  between  the 
Spirit  of  God  and  the  spirit  of  sin,  are  never  to  be  thought 
of  as  posssible. 

IT.  "Wherefore  come  out  from  among  them,  and  be 
ye  separate,  saith  the  Lord,  and  toiieli  not  the  unclean 
thing ;  and  I  will  receive  you, 


332  2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VI. 

18,  And  will  be  a  Father  unto  you,  and  ye  sliall  be 
my  sons  and  daughters,  saith  the  Lord  Almighty. 

"  Wherefore  " — (what  reasoning  can  be  stronger  ?) 
'•'wherefore,  come  out  from  among  them," — from  the 
houses,  the  society,  the  sympathies  of  idol-worshipping 
men  and  women  ;  and  be  ye  separate  ;  touch  not  the  un- 
clean thing ;  so  I  will  receive  you  ;  so  I  will  be  to  you  a 
Father,  and  ye  shall  be  to  me  for  sons  and  daughters. — 
Full  of  moral  force  is  the  name  given  to  Him  who  makes 
these  promises — "  the  Lord  Almighty."  Think  of  such  a 
Father — of  such  a  Promiser — of  such  an  everlasting 
Friend  !  Could  ye  not  well  afford  to  forego  all  other 
friends,  associates,  companions,  for  the  sake  of  him — all 
human  love  for  his  ? 


-«<>!- 


CHAPTER  VIL 

In  thought,  V.  1,  belongs  at  the  close  of  Chapter  G, — 
an  exhortation  founded  upon  the  great  truths  and  prom- 
ises presented  there.  The  rest  of  the  chapter  resumes  and 
discusses  more  fully  the  theme  introduced  in  Chapter  2, 
viz.,  the  return  of  Titus  from  Corinth  ;  the  welcome  tid- 
ings he  brought  of  the  successful  issue  of  that  fearful 
case  of  discipline  ;  and  the  great  comfort  and  joy  which 
these  tidings  brought  to  the  long  afflicted  heart  of  the 
Great  Apostle. 

1.  Having  therefore  these  promises,  dearly  beloved, 
let  us  cleanse  ourselves  from  all  filthiness  of  the  fiesh 
and  spirit,  perfecting  holiness  in  the  fear  of  God. 

"  Cleanse  ourselves,"  gives  jorominence  to  man's  per- 
sonal agency  and  responsibility  in  his  own  sanctification  ; 
yet  not  at  all  beyond  the  truth  of  the  case.  In  this  con- 
nection with  God's  exceeding  great  and  rich  promises, 
there  could  be  no  special  danger  of  over-empliasizing  man's 
agency  or  of  understating  the  agency  of  the  Divine  Spirit 
— God  dwelling  and  energizing  in  human  souls,  it  is 
because  God's  energy  is  such  a  present  fact  and  living 
power  in  our  souls  that  we  are  exhorted  to  ivork  together 


3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VII.  333 

with  him  ;  to  cleanse  ourselves  that  the  heart  may  be  a  fit 
temple  for  his  abode. — This  is  Paul's  way  of  putting  the 
co-ordinate  agencies  of  God  and  man  ; — '*  Work  out  your 
own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling ;  for  it  is  God  who 
worketh  in  you  both  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  own  good 
pleasure."  (Phil.  2:  12,  13).  The  word  "cleanse"  is  well 
chosen  here,  with  reference  to  '•'  Touch  not  the  unclean 
thing"  (6:17),  and  with  obvious  allusion  to  the  ancient 
temple  in  which  God's  apartment — the  Most  Holy  Place — 
could  never  endure  the  least  pollution. 

Of  course  the  word  is  here  transferred  from  its  physical 
to  its  corresponding  moral  and  spiritual  sense — in  which 
sin  is  the  only  pollution.  It  matters  little  what  else  may 
be  in  our  thought  and  heart,  if  there  be  no  sin  there. 

"  Filthiness  of  flesh  and  spirit  "  does  not  assume  that 
sin  can  be  precisely  inftesh,  in  such  a  sense  that  the  spirit 
has  no  responsibility  for  it.  The  distinction  looks  only  to 
the  divers  sources  of  the  temptation  which  comes  iefore  the 
sin — some  of  these  temptations  being  in  flesh  and  some  in 
spirit.  The  real  sin  is  always  in  the  spirit — the  voluntary 
action  of  man's  will  or  soul. 

"Perfecting  holiness"  certainly  assumes  tliat  nothing 
less  than  perfect  holiness  should  ever  satisfy  our  aspirations 
or  measure  our  aims  and  endeavors.  Never  a  sin  of  any  sort 
is  to  be  tolerated  ;  never  a  lust  leftunslain  ;  never  an  evil 
passion  allowed  to  live.  Every  thought  must  be  brought 
into  captivity  to  the  law  of  Christ ;  every  activity  be  shaped 
and  molded  into  love  and  loving  service  for  God  and  for  our 
generation  according  to  the  will  of  God.  The  theory  that 
some  lower  standard  of  Christian  life  than  this  from  Paul, 
is  at  all  admissible,  is  one  of  the  most  ruinous  heresies  that 
ever  cursed  the  church,  or  imperilled  human  souls.  To 
interpret  Paul's  words  to  mean  only  this  : — Cleanse  your- 
selves from  a  part  [rather  than  all]  of  the  filthiness  of  your 
flesh  and  spirit — is  an  outrage  on  his  words  and  on  his 
teaching.  And  to  break  the  force  of  his  exliortation  by 
saying  that  though  perfection  is  the  rule  and  the  law,  yet 
it  is,  for  the  present  life,  impossible,  and  therefore  not  be 
expected  or  aimed  at,  and  that  the  hope  of  it  is  a  dangerous 
heresy — is  scarcely  more  defensible.  Why  not  let  the  ex- 
hortation and  precept  of  Christ  through  his  inspired  ser- 
vants come  home  to  our  heart  with  all  their  inspiring,  up- 
lifting power  ? 

15 


334:  2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VII. 

2.  Keeeive  us ;  we  have  wronged  no  man,  we  have 
corrupted  no  man,  we  have  defrauded  no  man. 

3.  I  speak  not  this  to  condemn  you  :  for  I  have  said 
before  that  ye  are  in  our  hearts  to  die  and  live  with  you. 

"Eeceive  us  "  in  love  and  confidence,  giving  us  a  place 
in  your  very  heart.  We  have  done  nothing  to  forfeit  your 
confidence  or  your  esteem.  \Ye  have  wronged  no  man  : 
we  have  corrupted  no  man — i.  e.  in  the  moral  sense  of  de- 
praving his  morals  or  debasing  his  character.  "  We  have 
defrauded  no  man  "  may  perhaps  refer  to  taking  his  money 
for  our  support.  In  fact  that  hostile  faction  in  Corinth 
were  so  mean  and  suspicious  that  Paul  always  refused  to 
receive  a  penny  from  them  toward  his  necessary  bread. — 
'*'  I  speak  not  this  to  condemn  you" — though  it  may  seem 
to  you  to  mean  this,  at  least  by  implication. — "  That  ye  are 
in  our  heart  to  live  and  die  with  you,"  is  beautifully  strong 
in  Paul's  original  words — which  say — Ye  are  in  our  heart 
unto  the  extent  of  dying  and  living  with  you.  The  love  of 
our  souls  for  you  has  knit  our  interests  and  destinies  so  per- 
fectly with  yours  that  wo  shall  live  or  die  together.  Your 
life  is  life  to  us  ;  your  death  would  be  our  death. 

4.  Great  is  my  boldness  of  speech  toward  you,  great 
is  my  glorying  of  you :  I  am  filled  with  comfort,  I  am 
exceeding  joyful  in  all  our  tribulation. 

5.  For,  when  we  were  come  into  Macedonia,  our 
flesh  had  no  rest,  but  we  were  troubled  on  every  side ; 
without  yje7'e  fightings,  within  were  fears. 

It  seems  hard  for  Paul  to  express  fully  the  exuberance 
of  his  joy  upon  the  coming  of  Titus  with  so  good  news  from 
Corinth.  '•  I  am  exceeding  joyful  in  all  our  tribulation  " 
means — I  am  overflowing  with  joy,  not  merely  in  but  ii2ion 
our  tribulation — as  if  it  were  a  joy  that  comes  over  upon 
and  quite  eclipses  them  all. — That  was  a  dark  day  in  our  life 
history  Avhen  we  came  into  Macedonia,  expecting  to  find 
Titus  there  but  found  him  not.  Our  flesh  had no  rest. 
Without  were  fightings  i.  e.  of  bitter  persecutions  :  within 
were  fears,  of  the  issue  at  Corinth. 

6.  Nevertheless  God,  that  comforteth  those  that  are 
cast  down,  comforted  us  by  the  coming  of  Titus  : 

7.  And  not  by  his  coming  only,  but  l)y  the  consola- 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VII.  335 

tion  wherewith  he  was  comfoi'ted  in  you,  when  he  tokl 
us  your  earnest  desire,  your  mourning,  your  fervent  mind 
toward  me ;  so  that  I  rejoiced  the  more. 

8.  For  though  I  made  you  sorry  with  a  letter,  I  do 
not  rejient,  though  I  did  repent :  for  I  perceive  that  the 
same  epistle  hath  made  you  sorry,  though  it  were  but 
for  a  season. 

It  was  specially  beautiful  that  Paul  should  first  describe 
the  Giver  of  his  consolations  as  the  One  who  comforteth  the 
lowly  and  depressed,  before  he  gives  his  name,  God ;  for 
this  is  his  way  of  putting  it.  But  He  who  comforteth  the 
lowly  comforted  us,  even  God,  by  the  coming  of  Titus. — 
In  the  middle  clause  of  v.  7.  our  auth.  version  ''  tvlien  he 
told  us,"  would  be  more  accurate  if  read — "  ivho  told  us," 
Paul's  words  being  precisely — "  telling  us  your  strong  feel- 
ing "  etc.  The  idea  is  not  that  Titus  was  specially  consoled 
when  he  told  us  of  you,  but  that  we  were  made  glad,  both 
by  his  coming,  by  the  comfort  he  had  in  you,  and  not  least 
by  the  tidings  he  brought  as  to  your  strong  feeling,  your 
sorrow  over  the  case  and  your  fervent  mind  in  my  behalf 
— i.  e,  for  my  relief  :  so  that  I  rejoiced  even  more  than  I 
had  been  saddened  before. — In  the  last  clause  of  v.  8.  there 
seems  to  be  a  suppressed  clause  to  be  supplied  in  order  to 
bring  out  in  a  natural  way  the  full  sense,  making  the  entire 
verse  read  thus  : — Because  though  I  grieved  you  in  the  let- 
ter [first  epistle],  I  do  not  repent  though  I  did  [for  a  time] 
repent ;  for  I  see  that  that  letter,  though  it  saddened  you 
for  a  time,  has  done  you  great  good.  Precisely  these  five 
words  seem  requisite  to  exjDress  easily  his  obvious  meaning. 
The  great  delicacy  of  the  subject  may  account  for  their 
omission  just  here. 

Paul's  word  here  for  "  repent "  is  never  used  for  gospel  re- 
pentance but  rather  for  a  change  of  mind  which  presup- 
poses great  cai'C  and  responsibility.  Paul  suggests  that  his 
anxiety  for  the  result  was  at  one  time  so  great  that  he  was 
almost  sorry  he  had  written,  or  at  least,  that  he  had  writ- 
ten so  stringently.  His  words  indicate  the  great  depth  of 
his  sensibilities  over  this  case. 

9.  I^ow  I  rejoice,  not  that  ye  were  made  sorry,  but 
that  ye  sorrowed  to  repentance :  for  ye  were  made  sorry 


336  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VII. 

after  a  godly  manner,  tliat  ye  might  receive  damage  by 
ns  in  nothing. 

10.  For  godly  sorrow  worketh  repentance  to  salvation 
not  to  be  rej)ented  of :  but  the  sorrow  of  the  world 
worketh  death. 

11.  For  behold  this  selfsame  thing,  that  ye  sorrowed 
after  a  godly  sort,  what  carefulness  it  wrought  in  you, 
yea,  what  clearing  of  yourselves,  yea,  what  indignation, 
yea,  what  fear,  yea,  ivhat  vehement  desire,  yea,  lohat  zeal, 
yea,  what  revenge !  In  all  things  ye  have  approved 
yourselves  to  be  clear  in  this  matter. 

Now  I  rejoice,  not  that  ye  were  made  sad,  but  tliat  this 
sadness  wrought  unto  repentance — that  it  bore  this  prec- 
ious fruit  and  result.  This  repentance  [Greek]  is  the  word 
every  where  in  New  Testament  use  for  repentance  unto 
salvation — that  of  the  gospel  in  which  the  sinner  turns  to 
God  with  sorrow  for  his  sin.  ''Ye  were  made  sorry  after 
a  godly  manner  "  (v.  9)  does  not  refer  to  the  way  they  wei'e 
brought  to  this  sorrow — with  emphasis  upon  "  made,"  but 
to  the  nature  of  the  sorrow.  Paul's  plirase  is — '*'  that  ye 
sorrowed  according  to  God  [kata  Theon]  in  the  sense  that 
their  sorrow  was  such  as  pleases  God — a  sorrow  that  comes 
of  just  views  of  sin  as  toward  and  against  God. 

The  last  clause  of  v.  9  puts  the  case  very  gently — the 
literal  sense  being — To  the  result  of  your  receiving  no  harm 
from  us  in  anything  ;  but  the  real  sense  must  be — so  that 
ye  have  received  great  jDrofit  and  nothing  but  profit  in  the 
end.  This  result,  moreover,  is  put  as  God's  purpose  in  his 
providence  and  grace. 

''For"  (v.  10)  introduces  a  more  full  explanation  of 
the  two  kinds  of  sorrow — that  which  is  according  to  God — 
the  sort  which  comes  from  proper  regard  for  God  ;  working 
repentance  unto  salvation  of  which  none  ever  have  occasion 
to  repent  :  but  over  against  this — the  sorrow  which  has 
only  the  world  in  its  eye — which  cares  only  for  man's  es- 
teem, for  social  standing,  for  personal  reputation  (a  sorrow 
which  is  sometimes  mistaken  for  real  conviction  of  sin  and 
true  repentance) — this  works  only  death.  The  man  is 
troubled  only  because  his  sin  proved  to  be  a  blunder  and 
brought  upon  him  some  worldly  damage  which  he  exceed- 
ingly desires  to  repair.  Why  should  he  deceive  himself 
with  the  notion  that  such  sorrow  is  pleasing  to  God  ? 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VII.  3.37 

Then,  (v.  11)  Paul  calls  their  attention  to  the  fruits  of 
their  godly  sorrow — to  note  what  earnest  diligence  [to  set 
things  right]  ;  what  clearing  of  yourselves  [not,  however, 
by  apologizing  for  the  sin  but  by  putting  it  away]  ;  what 
indignation  against  wrong  doing  ;  what  godly  fear  of  evil 
consequences  [in  the  line  perhaps  of  pestiferous  influ- 
ences] ;  what  longing  desire,  zeal  and  revenge — as  if  they 
could  not  rest,  and  were  ready  to  punish  themselves  by 
self-imposed  retribution.  How  earnestly  did  ye  labor  to 
clear  yourselves  of  all  further  responsibility  as  to  the  great 
sin  and  scandal  ? 

The  entire  passage  is  a  precious  testimony  to  the  good 
results  of  wholesome  church  discipline.  It  served  to  put 
scandalous  sin  within  the  church  in  its  true  light,  and 
wrought  a  blessed  repentance  toward  God  for  the  wrong 
they  had  tolerated.  Not  least — perhaps  best  of  all — it 
brought  the  offender  to  repentance. 

And  yet  one  more  good  result  comes  fi*om  this  case  ; — 
It  serves  to  develop  most  beautifully  the  spirit  of  Paul  in 
such  matters — a  noble  example  of  the  heart  as  well  as  the 
hand  that  should  be  manifested  in  church  discipline  by 
church  officers  and  by  all  the  membership. 

12.  "Wherefore,  tliougli  I  wrote  unto  you,  I  did  it 
not  for  his  cause  that  had  done  the  wrong,  nor  for  his 
cause  that  suffered  wrong,  but  that  our  care  for  you  in 
the  sight  of  God  might  appear  nnto  you. 

13.  Therefore  we  were  comforted  in  your  comfort : 
yea,  and  exceedingly  the  more  joyed  we  for  the  joy  of 
Titus,  because  his  spirit  was  refreshed  by  yon  all. 

14.  For  if  I  have  boasted  any  thing  to  him  of  you,  I 
am  not  ashamed ;  but  as  we  spake  all  things  to  you  in 
truth,  even  so  our  boasting,  which  /  WMde  before  Titus, 
is  found  a  truth. 

15.  And  his  inward  affection  is  more  abundant  to- 
ward yon,  whilst  he  remembereth  the  obedience  of  you 
all,  how  with  fear  and  trembling  ye  received  him. 

16.  I  rejoice  therefore  that  I  have  confidence  in  you 
in  all  things. 

"  His  cause  who  suffered  wrong  "  is  supposed  to  refer  to 
the  father  whose  wife  left  him  and  married  the  son. — The 
oldest  manuscripts  [S.  V. — accepted  by  Tischendorf]  make 


338  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VII. 

the  somewhat  remarkable  change — "your  care  for  ns,"  in- 
stead of  "our  care  for  you" — and  which  would  imply  that 
Paul's  main  purpose  was  to  give  that  church  an  opportu- 
nity to  show  their  warm  affection  and  earnest  spirit  toward 
himself.  In  v.  13,  the  same  authorities  make  the  verse 
read  ; — Therefore  we  were  comforted  ;  but  in  addition  .to 
our  comfort,  we  rejoiced  much  the  more  at  the  Joy  of 
Titus. 

Paul's  sympathy  with  Titus  was  strong  and  beautiful, 
and  the  testimony  incidentally  given  here  as  to  the  char- 
acter of  Titus  places  him  deservedly  high  in  our  esteem. 

Throughout  this  chapter  the  developments  of  Christian 
character  are  really  an  oasis  in  the  history  of  the  church 
of  Corinth. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

This  cliapter  and  the  9th  treat  exclusively  of  that  col- 
lection for  the  poor  saints  at  Jerusalem  which  interested 
Paul  deeply  and  is  spoken  of  in  Kom.  15  :  26,  37  and  Acts 
24  :  17.  Paul  aims  to  stir  up  a  generous  emulation  in  this 
matter  between  the  churches  of  Macedonia  and  those  of 
Achaia  (Corinth  included)  ;  also  to  insj)ire  them  by  the  ex- 
ample of  the  Lord  Jesus  ;  and  by  the  gratitude  and  thanks- 
giving which  their  benefactions  were  calling  forth  to  the 
result  of  richer  communion  and  fellowship  among  tlie 
churches,  and  higher  glory  to  God. 

1.  Moreover,  brethren,  we  do  you  to  wit  of  the  grace 
of  God  bestowed  on  the  churches  of  Macedonia; 

2.  How  that  in  a  great  trial  of  aflliction,  the  abund- 
ance of  their  joy  and  their  deej)  proverty  abounded  unto 
the  riches  of  their  liberality. 

3.  For  to  thei'/'  power,  I  bear  record,  yea,  and  beyond 
their  power  they  were  willing  of  themselves ; 

4.  Praying  us  with  much  entreaty  that  we  would  re- 
ceive the  gift,  and  take  upon  us  the  fellowship  of  the 
ministering  to  the  saints. 

The  obsolete  word  "  to  wit "  makes  this  translation  very 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VIII.  339 

infelicitous.  What  Paul  said  means  only — '•'  We  make 
known  to  you,  brethren,  the  grace  of  God,"  etc. — Noticea- 
bly that  word  ''grace" — most  prolific  in  its  various  but 
rich  senses — is  here  the  Christian  virtue  of  benificence — 
a  free  and  joyous  spirit  of  giving  to  the  extent  of  real  sac- 
rifice. 

We  desire  (says  Paul)  to  tell  you — ye  brethren  of  Cor- 
inth how  greatly  the  Lord  blessed  the  churches  of  Mace- 
donia with  this  "'grace."  For  under  a  very  severe  trial  of 
persecution,  the  fullness  of  their  Joy  and  their  deep 
poverty  abounded  unto  the  riches  of  their  liberality  i.  c. 
conduced  to  make  them  rich  and  joyful  in  the  spirit  and 
tlie  love  of  giving.  For  I  can  testify  for  them  that  ac- 
cording to  tlieir  ability — yea,  even  beyond  their  ability, 
they  were  self-moved,  entreating  us  with  much  exhorta- 
tion for  the  privilege  of  sharing  in  this  ministry  in  behalf 
of  the  poor  saints. — Our  Auth.  version  misses  the  sense  of 
V.  4,  very  materially,  their  mistake  being  due  in  part  to 
an  erroneous  text — the  earlier  manuscripts,  recently 
brought  into  use,  rejecting  the  words — '•'  that  we  would 
receive."  Instead,  therefore,  of  reading  the  verse — "Pray- 
ing us  to  receive  their  gift  and  undertake  the  appropria- 
tion of  it  to  the  use  of  the  saints,"  the  verse  should  read — 
'•'  Begging  of  us,  with  much  entreaty,"  the  privilege  of  giv- 
ing [literally  "  the  grace"]  and  the  sharing  in  this  minis- 
try for  the  saints.  They  felt  it  to  be  a  privilege  of  which 
they  could  not  be  denied. 

Of  those  churches  of  Macedonia,  Philippi  and  Thes- 
salonica  are  best  known.  We  may  assume  anotiicr  at  Berea, 
and  doubtless  yet  others,  not  specially  named  in  our  New 
Testament. — Of  their  trials  from  persecution  we  have  some 
notice  in  Acts  IG  :  20  and  17:  5;  also  1  Thess.  1:  6  and 
2:  U. 

5.  And  this  they  did^  not  as  we  hoped,  but  first  gave 
their  own  selves  to  the  Lord,  and  uuto  lis  by  the  will  of 
God. 

6.  Insomuch  that  we  desired  Titus,  that  as  he  had 
begun,  so  he  would  also  finish  iu  you  the  same  grace 
also. 

7.  Therefore,  as  ye  abound  in  eyevjihing,  in  faith, 
and  utterance  and  knowledge,  and  in  all  diligence,  and 
in  jour  love  to  us,  see  that  yo,  abound  in  this  grace  also. 


340  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VIII. 

Not  merely  up  to  the  measure  we  had  hoped,  but  (he 
assumes)  much  beyond  it.  For  they  began  Avith  giving 
themselves  wholly  to  the  Lord — altogether  the  most  vital 
thing  and  therefore  the  very  place  to  begin,  and  the 
real  secret  of  their  munificent  liberality.  Paul's  word 
means  not  so  much  first  in  time  as  first  in  value. — Their 
grand  example  moved  us  to  exhort  Titus  to  resume  and 
carry  through  the  collection  among  yourselves — "finish 
the  same  '"'grace  "  i.  c.  the  grace  of  free-hearted  liberality. 

8.  I  speak  not  by  commandment,  but  by  occasion  of 
the  forwardness  of  others,  and  to  prove  the  sincerity  of 
your  love. 

9.  For  ye  know  the.grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
that,  though  he  was  rich,  yet  for  your  sakes  he  became 
poor,  that  ye  through  his  poverty  might  be  rich. 

10.  And  herein  I  give  ?;?y  advice :  for  this  is  ex- 
pedient for  you,  who  have  begun  before,  not  only  to  do, 
but  also  to  be  forward  a  year  ago. 

11.  Now  therefore  perform  the  doing  of  it ;  that  as 
there  ivas  a  readiness  to  will,  so  there  maij  he  a  perform- 
ance also  out  of  that  which  ye  have. 

12.  For  if  there  be  first  a  willing  mind,  it  is  accepted 
according  to  that  a  man  hath,  and  not  according  to  that 
he  hath  not. 

In  V.  8  we  have  another  case  of  Paul's  careful  discrim- 
ination between  what  he  wrote  under  special  command 
from  God,  and  what  he  suggested  as  his  own  personal 
judgment  and  opinion.  In  this  case  he  was  moved  by  the 
insj)iring  example  of  those  churches  of  Macedonia.  He 
also  wished  to  prove  the  genuineness  of  their  love,  there 
in  Corinth. 

Always  pertinent  as  a  motive  for  Christian  liberality 
is  the  example  of  our  incarnate  Redeemer.  Who  so  rich 
as  he  in  all  the  glories  of  heaven  ;  yet  how  did  he  empty 
himself,  disrobe  himself  of  all  the  honors  and  the  wealth 
of  heaven,  and  become  so  very  poor  upon  earth  that  he 
"  had  not  where  to  lay  his  head  ! "  Was  ever  such  giving 
as  his  for  us  !  Were  hopeless  poor  ones  ever  so  enriched 
as  his  people  have  been  by  his  benefactions  !  Why  then 
Bhall  not  his  example  burn  in  our  souls  until  like  those 
Macedonian  Churches,  we  beg  the  privilege  of  giving  and 


3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VIII.  341 

account  it  as  our  richest  boon  to  share  the  joy  of  giving 
for  Him  who  has  given  us  the  riches  of  heaven  ? — In  v.  10, 
last  clause,  the  Greek  word  for  ''to  be  forward,"  means 
precisely — to  ivill — to  have  the  purpose  and  heart  to  do. — 
The  striking  point  in  this  phrase  is,  therefore,  that  the  do- 
ing seems  to  come  before  the  willing,  and  the  willing,  to 
be  a  higher  virtue  or  attainment.  Whereas  in  our  philoso- 
phy we  assume  the  willing  to  come  before  the  doing.  How 
is  this  ? 

Bengel  explains — Eeady  not  only  to  do  for  this  year, 
but  to  plan  and  to  will  for  another  annual  collection. — Our 
Auth.  version  explains  by  putting  sjiecial  emphasis  upon 
'■  the  willing,"  in  the  sense  of  extraordinary  pi'omptness, 
activity. — I  judge  that  Bengel  approximates  the  true  mean- 
ing, vix.  that  a  year  ago,  they  not  only  began  to  take  up 
collections ;  but  to  will  and  to  j9/a;i  to  continue  them 
weekly  for  the  year  ensuing,  so  as  to  be  ready  with  yet  an- 
other large  contribution.  In  this  sense  the  willing  was  a 
yet  additional  and  higher  fact  than  the  first  doing  in  the 
way  of  beginning  the  collection. — What  follows  corres- 
ponds with  this  :  Now,  therefore,  finisli  the  doing,  that  as 
there  has  been  a  promptness  of  willing,  planning,  so  there 
shall  be  the  execution,  the  finishing,  according  to  your 
ability — literally,  according  to  your  having — to  what  ye 
have. — For  the  willing  mind  being  supposed — being  a  fact 
— then  the  gift  is  acceptable  to  God,  measured  by  what  he 
has  and  not  by  what  he  does  not  possess.  God  never  asks 
the  poor  man  to  give  according  to  what  would  be  the  right 
scale  for  the  rich,  for  this  would  measure  him  by  what  he 
has  not. 

13.  For  /  mean  not  that  other  men  be  eased,  and 
ye  burdened. 

14.  But  by  an  equality,  that  now  at  this  time  your 
abundance  may  he  a  suj^ply  for  their  want,  that  their 
abundance  also  may  be  a  supjyly  for  your  want ;  that 
there  may  be  equality  : 

15.  As  it  is  written,  He  that  had  gathered  much  had 
nothing  over :  and  he  that  had  gathered  little  had  no 
lack. 

Literally,  not  that  there  should  be  relief  to  others  and 


342  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VIII. 

burden  on  you  ;  but  according  to  equality — each  iu  due 
proportion  to  his  ability. 

16.  But  thanks  1)6  to  God,  which  put  the  same  earn- 
est care  into  the  heart  of  Titus  for  you. 

17.  For  indeed  he  accepted  the  exhortation ;  but  be- 
ing more  forward,  of  his  own  accord  he  went  unto  you. 

18.  And  we  have  sent  with  him  the  brother,  whose 
praise  is  in  the  gospel  throughout  all  the  churches ; 

19.  And  not  that  only,  but  who  was  also  chosen  of 
the  churches  to  travel  with  us  with  this  grace,  which 
is  administered  by  us  to  the  glory  of  the  same  Lord,  and 
declaration  of  your  ready  mind : 

The  same  earnest  cares  for  you  which  I  have  felt  my- 
self.— For  on  the  one  hand  he  accepted  the  exhortation 
{i.e.  from  me)  ;  and  on  the  other,  being  more  eager  than  to 
need  any  exhortation,  he  went  of  his  own  motion,  of  self- 
choice — as  Paul's  word  says. 

*'  The  brother"  (v.  18),  sent  with  him,  "  whose  praise 
in  the  gospel  is  throughout  all  the  churches,"  is  generally 
and  quite  reasonably  assumed  to  have  been  Luke.  The 
circumstances  which  conspire  to  make  this  highly  probable 
are  of  this  sort.  The  character  given  him  by  Paul  (Col. 
4:  14), — ''Luke  the  beloved  physician," — corresponds  well 
with  the  point  put  here — "  Whose  praise  in  the  gospel  is 
in  all  the  churches." — The  residence  and  labors  of  Luke 
for  many  years  were  in  Macedonia,  near  or  at  Phillippi, 
where  the  record  (Acts  16:  10-16),  shows  him  to  have 
been  with  Paul,  but  left  there,  or  at  least,  not  with  Paul 
again  till  the  notice  (Acts  20:  5),  from  which  time  he  was 
with  Paul  till  he  reached  Ptome  a  prisoner.  That  is  to 
say,  he  was  with  Paul  in  Macedonia  when  he  wrote  this 
second  epistle  to  Corinth,  and  fulfilled  this  commission  to 
visit  Corinth  in  person  to  gather  up  those  collections  and 
take  them  in  company  with  Paul  to  Jerusalemi — Yet 
further,  quite  ancient  tradition,  appearing  in  the  subscrip- 
tion to  this  epistle,  sets  forth  that  it  was  sent  by  the  hands 
of  Titus  and  Luke. — In  v.  19,  Paul  says  that  this  brothei 
(Luke)  was  designated  by  the  churches  {i.e.  of  Macedonia), 
to  travel  with  Paul  to  Jerusalem  in  charge  of  their  collec- 
tion— which  Paul  calls  "  this  grace,"  a  beneficence  which 
comes  of  the  grace  of  God's  Spirit,  and  has  therefore  the 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  VIH.  3^3 

elements  of  grace  in  it, — In  the  last  clause  of  v.  19,  the 
better  authorities  say,  not  ''  your  "  but  our  ready  mind. 

20.  Avoiding  this,  that  no  man  should  blame  us  in 
this  abundance  which  is  administered  by  us  : 

21.  Providing  for  honest  tilings,  not  only  in  the  sight 
of  the  Lord,  but  also  in  the  sight  of  men. 

22.  And  we  have  sent  with  them  our  brother,  whom 
we  have  oftentimes  proved  diligent  in  many  things,  but 
now  how  much  more  diligent,  upon  the  great  confidence 
which  I  have  in  you. 

23.  Whether  any  do  inqidre  of  Titus,  he  is  my  part- 
ner and  fellow  helper  concerning  you :  or  our  brethren 
he  inquired  of,  they  are  the  messengers  of  the  churches, 
and  the  glory  of  Christ. 

24.  Wherefore  show  ye  to  them,  and  before  the 
churches,  the  proof  of  your  love,  and  of  our  boasting  on 
your  behalf. 

Paul  had  obvious  reasons  for  declining  all  charge  of 
this  collection,  and  for  insisting  that  the  churches  them- 
selves appoint  brethren  for  this  purpose,  well  known  and 
universally  esteemed.  It  was  not  that  his  own  character 
was  shaky  or  his  good  name  under  any  reasonable  suspic- 
ion ;  but  mainly  because  there  were  ill-disposed  men  eager 
to  seize  upon  any  thing  that  might  bring  him  into  disre- 
pute. Knowing  their  attitude,  he  purposely  blocked  their 
design. — In  v.  21,  the  word  "honest"  translates  Paul's 
word  quite  imperfectly.  He  means — fore  thoughtfully 
guarding  against  suspicion  ;  providing  such  safeguards  as 
must  shield  our  Christian  reputation.  His  Greek  word 
for  "honest"  [kala],  has  no  exact  equivalent.  Honora- 
ble, approximates  its  sense  ;  that  which  cannot  be  aspersed, 
which  defies  defamation,  comes  yet  nearer  to  its  signifi- 
cance. 

This  second  brother  (v.  23),  is  not  easily  identified  ; — 
probably  some  one  of  those  whose  names  appear  in  Acts 
20:  4,  as  Paul's  fellow  travellers  on  this  journey  to  Jeru- 
lem  ;  but  which  of  them  is  not  known. 

These  brethren  were  entirely  worthy  of  confidence. 
Therefore  he  exhorts  the  brethren  at  Corinth  to  receive 
them  and  give  them  proof  of  their  love,  and  duly  honor 
these  testimonials  from  Paul. 


3M  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  IX. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


The  subject  of  Chapter  VIII  is  continued  and  com- 
pleted. 

1.  For  as  toiicliing  the  ministering  to  the  saints,  it  is 
superfluous  for  me  to  write  to  you  : 

2.  For  I  know  the  forwardness  of  your  mind,  for 
which  I  boast  of  you  to  them  of  Macedonia,  that  Achaia 
was  ready  a  year  ago ;  and  your  zeal  hath  provoked  very 
many. 

3.  Yet  have  I  sent  the  brethren,  lest  our  boasting  of 
you  should  be  in  vain  in  this  behalf ;  that,  as  I  said,  ye 
may  be  ready : 

4.  Lest  haply  if  they  of  Macedonia  come  with  me, 
and  find  you  unj^repared,  we  (that  we  say  not,  ye)  should 
be  ashamed  in  this  same  confident  boasting. 

*•'  Superfluous,"  because  of  the  zeal  ye  have  already 
shown.  Paul  has  no  scruples  against  commending  what 
was  commendable. — Yet  he  had  just  a  little  fear  that  their 
collection  might  not  be  all  in  readiness,  and  therefore  sent 
the  brethren  above  referred  to,  and  wrote  them  in  advance 
lest  on  their  arrival,  things  should  be  behindhand.  Hav- 
ing spoken  so  highly  of  them,  almost  to  the  point  of 
boasting,  he  would  be  ashamed  of  such  a  result ; — perhaps 
they  ought  to  be  also.  But  in  the  last  clause  of  v.  4,  the 
better  text  omits  the  word  "boasting,"  leaving  it  thus  ; — 
"Ashamed  in  this  matter,"  i.e.,  ashamed  that  I  had  as- 
sumed too  much. 

5.  Therefore  I  thought  it  necessary  to  exhort  the 
brethren  that  they  would  go  before  unto  you,  and  make 
up  beforehand  jont  bounty,  whereof  ye  had  notice  be- 
fore, that  the  same  might  be  ready,  as  a  matter  of 
bounty,  and  not  as  of  covetousness, 

"  Make  up  beforehand  your  bounty,"  does  not  mean 
that  they  themselves  were  to  make  good  any  deficiency  ;  but 
only  that  they  stir  up  the  brethren  there  to  put  it  in  readi- 
ness. Translate  ; — That  they  go  forward  to  you  and  get 
in  readiness  your  benefaction  [collection]  before  promised — 
i.e.  by  myself  to  the  churches  of  Macedonia — that  it  may 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  IX.  345 

be  ready  as  a  blessing  from  your  heart,  and  not  as  if  wrung 
out  of  your  covetous  souls.  In  the  sight  of  God,  this 
difference  is  everything. 

G.  But  this  /  say^  He  which  soweth  sparingly  shall 
reap  also  sparingly;  and  he  which  soweth  bountifully 
shall  reap  also  bountifully. 

7.  Every  man  according  as  he  purposeth  in  his  heart, 
80  let  him  give :  not  grudgingly,  or  of  necessity :  for 
God  loveth  a  cheerful  giver. 

"  But  this,"  consider  well ;  note  carefully.  Paul  leaves 
the  admonition  for  them  to  supply. 

As  the  sowing,  so  shall  the  reaping  be  (Gal.  6;  7).  He 
that  sows  with  the  blessing  from  his  own  heart  shall 
reap  with  the  blessing  from  God's  heart.  Paul's  chosen 
Avords  mean  all  this. 

Let  each  man  give  out  of  the  choice  of  his  heart ;  not 
of  grief  or  of  compulsion,  as  if  under  the  strain  of  social 
pressure,  to  keep  up  his  social  standing,  yet  sad  and  driven 
quite  against  his  preference,  and  quite  apart  from  any  love 
in  his  heart.  God  loves  a  cheerful  giver — one  who  him- 
self loves  to  give. 

8.  And  God  is  able  to  make  all  grace  abound  toward 
you  ;  that  ye,  always  having  all  sufiiciency  in  all  things, 
may  abound  to  every  good  work : 

9.  (As  it  is  written,  He  has  dispersed  abroad ;  he 
hath  given  to  the  poor :  his  righteousness  remaineth  for 
ever. 

10.  l^ow  he  that  ministereth  seed  to  .the  sower  both 
minister  bread  for  your  food,  and  multiply  your  seed 
sown,  and  increase  the  fruits  of  your  righteousness :) 

11.  Being  enriched  in  every  thing  to  all  bountiful- 
ness,  which  causeth  through  us  thanksgiving  to  God. 

God  is  very  able  to  give  bountifully — both  of  his  grace 
and  of  his  good  providence,  to  those  who  give  bountifully 
for  his  cause.  Thus  those  who  begin  with  liberal  giving, 
shall  have  means  for  giving  yet  more  liberally. 

The  quotation  (from  Ps.  112:  9),  is  entirely  in  point. 
This  '^  he  "  is  not  God  but  the  liberal  man — the  whole 
strain  of  the  Psalm  describing  his  overflowing  benefac- 
tions. 


3i6  2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  IX. 

In  V.  10,  the  older  textual  authorities  have  the  simple 
future  and  not  the  optative,  i.e.  making  it  a  prediction, 
not  a  prayer.  Our  auth.  version  misplaces  the  second 
clause  (''minister  bread  for  your  food")  for  the  verse 
should  read,  "  He  who  ministers  seed  for  the  sower  and 
bread  for  food,  will  minister  and  will  multiply  your  seed, 
and  will  increase  the  product  of  your  righteousness,"  or 
rather,  of  your  rightness  [your  generosity.] 

Vs.  9,  10,  being  a  parenthesis,  v.  11  is  connected  gram- 
matically with  V.  8,  "  That  ye  may  abound  in  every  good 
work,"  "being  enriched  in  everything,"  etc. 

12.  For  the  administration  of  tins  service  not  only 
snpplieth  the  want  of  the  saints,  but  is  abundant  also  by 
many  thanksgivings  nnto  God  ; 

13.  While  by  the  exj)eriment  of  this  ministration 
tliey  glorify  God  for  your  professed  subjection  unto  the 
gospel  of  Christ,  and  for  your  liberal  distribution  unto 
them,  and  unto  all  men  ; 

14.  And  by  their  prayer  for  you,  which  long  after 
you  for  the  exceeding  grace  of  God  in  you. 

15.  Thanks  he  unto  God  for  his  unspeakable  gift. 

Noticeably,  one  precious  result  of  these  charitable  con- 
tributions for  the  poor — one  in  which  Paul  rejoices  ex- 
ceedingly— is  that  it  abounds  in  many  thanksgivings  to 
God.  Grateful  hearts  remember  God  as  the  ultimate 
source  of  their  blessings,  and  God  himself  receives  honor 
and  praise  for  his  manifested  love  toward  his  poor. 

In  V.  13  our  Auth.  version  is  not  very  lucid.  The  real 
sense  is  too  good  to  be  obscured  ; — thus  :  (in  connection 
with  v.  13)  This  liberal  collection  not  only  supplies  the 
wants  of  the  saints  but  causes  many  thanksgivings  to  God 
— (v.  13)  They  glorifying  God  by  occasion  of  the  proof 
furnished  in  this  ministration,  of  your  professed  subjection 
to  the  gospel  of  Christ ;  and  by  their  prayer  for  you  (v.  14), 
they  having  an  ardent  affection  for  you  because  of  the 
the  superabounding  grace  of  God  upon  you. 

In  this  closing  outburst  of  gratitude  (v.  15),  it  seems  to 
be  the  view  of  some  critics  that  Paul  thought  only  of  God's 
gifts  in  his  grace  and  in  his  providence,  to  which  reference 
has  been  made  {e.  g.  in  v.  8) . — The  better  view  is  that 
those  gifts  of  God  were  suggestive  of  the  one  supreme,  far 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  IX.  317 

greater  gift  of  his  own  *'  well  beloved  Son."  This  accounts 
for  the  use  of  the  singular — gift ;  whereas  if  the  allusion 
were  to  God's  manifold  gifts  of  providence  and  of  grace  as 
above,  it  should  be  plural.  Then,  moreover,  the  epithet, 
"unspeakable" — one  that  cannot  be  unfolded — can  never 
be  fully  told — places  this  one  purposely  above  all  the  pre- 
viously mentioned  and  lesser  gifts  of  God. 


CHAPTER  X. 

This  chapter  is  occupied  throughout  with  Paul's  vin- 
dication of  himself  against  the  party  in  Corinth  who  de- 
cried his  good  name  ;  disparaged  his  labors  and  questioned 
his  Apostolic  authority — not  to  say,  his  Christian  character. 
There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  this  party  was  composed 
of  subtle,  probably  godless,  Jews,  who  at  heart  hated  Paul 
in  the  spirit  of  Jewish  prejudice,  because  of  his  devotion 
to  the  Gentiles  and  of  his  sturdy  opposition  to  their  national 
pride  and  exclusiveness.  Of  course  there  could  be  no  real 
sympathy  between  that  party  and  Paul.  Yet  they  had  in- 
fluence in  Corinth,  and  appear  to  have  made  great  preten- 
sions to  Christianity.  It  is  even  probable  (from  v.  7)  that 
they  were  the  party  designated  (1  Cor.  1  :  12)  as  saying — 
"I  of  Christ." 

1.  ISow  I  Paul  myself  beseech  you  bj  the  meekness 
and  gentleness  of  Christ,  who  in  presence  ain  base 
among  you,  but  being  absent  am  bold  toward  you  : 

2.  But  I  beseech  you,  that  I  may  not  be  bold  when  I 
am  present  with  that  confidence,  wherewith  I  think  to 
be  bold  against  some,  which  think  of  us  as  if  we  walked 
according  to  the  flesh. 

In  the  first  words — ''I  Paul  myself,"  he  makes  his  per- 
sonality emphatic.  Writing  out  ego  [I],  and  strengthening 
it  by  autos  [self]  make  a  very  strong  emphasis.  Paul  meanc 
to  say — I  come  now  for  a  plain,  personal  talk.  I  put  my- 
self in  a  beseeching,  imploring  attitude  :  I  beg  you  to  hear 
me,  for  a  little,  patiently. 

•'  By  the  meekness  and  gentleness  of  Christ ;  " — Shall 


31S  2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  X. 

this  be  taken  as  a  form  of  adjuration,  or  ratlier  with  this 
meaning  —  In  view  of  the  meekness  and  gentleness  of 
Christ  ?  The  latter  is  the  better  construction. — I  beseech 
you  as  in  the  presence  of  all  Christ's  own  meekness  and 
gentleness.  Ye  profess  to  honor  Christ ;  think  then  of  his 
Spirit,  and  let  it  be  a  presence  and  a  power  in  your  hearts. 
— I  Paul,  who  (us  ye  are  wont  to  say)  am  in  personal  pres- 
ence Tei'y  insignificant,  though  when  absent,  quite  bold 
toward  you. — I  judge  that  in  this  last  clause,  Paul  is  not 
so  much  giving  his  own  estimate  of  himself,  as  their  way 
of  talking  about  him. 

But  (v.  2)  I  beg  you  not  to  compel  me  to  be  bold  when 
present — [ye  would  find  that  I  can  be,  and  I  have  had  oc- 
casion to  think  the  matter  over].  I  am  thinking  I  may  be 
compelled  to  be  bold  against  some  who  think  we  are  walk- 
ing after  tlie  flesh  — i.  c.  with  only  godless,  selfish  aims. 

3.  For  thougli  we  walk  in  the  flesh,  we  do  not  war 
after  the  flesh : 

4.  (For  the  weapons  of  our  warfare  are  not  carnal, 
but  mighty  through  God  to  the  pulling  down  of  strong 
holds ;) 

5.  Casting  down  imaginations,  and  every  high  thing 
that  exalteth  itself  against  the  knowledge  of  Clod,  and 
bringing  into  captivity  every  thought  to  the  obedience 
of  Christ; 

6.  And  having  in  a  readiness  to  revenge  all  disobe- 
dience, when  your  obedience  is  fulfilled. 

For  though  walking  in  the  flesh — mortal  as  other  men, 
and  indeed,  encompassed  with  maiiifold  infirmities  of  flesh, 
yet  when  we  take  up  arms  against  Satan  and  sin  and  play 
the  role  of  the  Christian  warrior,  men  will  find  that  it  is 
not  done  '"'according  to  the  flesh  "  only — i.  c.  in  the  weak- 
ness of  flesh  and  blood  ;  "for"  the  weapons  we  fight  with 
are  not  of  flesh,  but  are  mighty  before  God — exceeding 
mighty — unto  the  casting  down  of  strong  bulwai'ks,  hurling 
down  proud  reasonings  and  every  lofty  thing  that  lifts  up 
itself  against  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  bringing  every 
thought  into  obedience  to  Christ ;  and  having  [our  forces] 
in  readiness  to  punish  every  disobedience  [rebellion],  when 
your  obedience  is  fully  manifested. — This  last  clause  means 
— We  shall  be  ready  to  excommunicate  and  "deliver  over 


2  CORINTHIANS— CHAP.  X.  3i9 

to  Satan"  every  man  who  rebels  against  our  apostolical 
authority  when  the  number  of  the  obedient  is  complete  and 
fully  manifested — i.  e.  so  that  the  line  shall  be  fully  and 
unmistakably  drawn  between  the  obedient,  and  the  proudly 
and  persistently  rebellious. 

The  phrase  (v.  4) — '-'mighty  through  God"  is  proba- 
bly a  Hebraism — miglity  to  God — as  Moses  was  said  by 
Stephen  (Acts  7  :  20)  to  be  fair  to  God — i.  e.  exceeding 
fair.  So  here,  mighty,  though  estimated  in  the  presence 
of  the  Almighty. 

7.  Do  ye  look  on  things  after  the  outward  appear- 
ance ?  If  any  man  trust  to  himself  that  he  is  Christ's 
let  him  of  himself  think  this  again,  that  as  he  ^6'  Christ's, 
even  so  are  we  Christ's. 

8.  For  though  I  should  boast  somewhat  more  of  our 
authority,  which  the  Lord  hath  given  us  for  edification, 
and  not  for  your  destruction,  I  should  not  lie  ashamed : 

9.  That  I  may  not  seem  as  if  I  would  terrify  you  by 
letters. 

10.  For  his  letters,  say  they,  are  weighty  and  power- 
ful ;  but  his  bodily  presence  is  weak,  and  his  speech 
contemptable. 

11.  Let  such  a  one  think  this,  that,  such  as  we  are  in 
word  by  letters  when  we  are  absent  such  will  le  also  in 
deed  when  we  are  present. 

Do  ye  look  on  things  and  judge  from  tJieirface?  It 
would  seem  so  from  the  way  ye  disparage  my  "bodily 
presence."  But  let  us  look  at  things  more  fundamental 
and  more  worthy  of  regard.  If  any  one  has  confidence  in 
himself  that  he  belongs  to  Christ,  giving  his  own  party 
the  honored  designation — ''  we  are  of  Christ,"  (1  Cor.  1 :  12) 
— let  him  in  a  manly  way  reason  with  himself  thus — that 
as  he  is  of  Christ,  so  are  we,  with  equal  self-conscious  evi- 
dence.— For  (v.  8). — if  I  shall  speak  somewhat  strongly  of 
our  apostolic  authority  which  the  Lord  has  given  us  for 
your  edification  and  not  for  your  destruction — [so  intended, 
and  so  we  shall  rejoice  to  exercise  it],  I  shall  not  be  put  to 
shame  [i.e.  by  its  failure  in  the  hour  of  need].  I  have  no 
wish  to  terrify  you  [unduly]  by  my  letters,  nor  would  I 
seem  to  do  it. — I  understand  (v.  10)  how  ye  are  wont  to 
speak  of  my  letters  compared  with  my  bodily  presence. 


350  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  X. 

Whoever  would  say  that,  let  him  know  that  if  I  am  com- 
pelled to  come  in  person,  my  deeds  will  be  no  less  earnest 
and  no  less  formidable  than  those  written  Avords. 

12.  For  we  dare  not  make  ourselves  of  the  number, 
or  compare  ourselves  with  some  that  commend  them- 
selves :  but  they,  measuring  themselves  by  themselves, 
and  comparing  themselves  among  themselves,  are  not 
wise. 

13.  But  we  will  not  boast  of  things  without  our 
measure,  but  according  to  the  measure  of  the  rule  which 
God  hath  distributed  to  us,  a  measure  to  reach  even  unto 
you. 

14.  For  we  stretch  not  ourselves  beyond  o\(,r  meas- 
ure.^ as  though  we  reached  not  unto  you ;  for  we  are 
come  as  far  as  to  you  also  in  preaching  the  gosj)el  of 
Christ : 

15.  l!^ot  boasting  of  things  without  our  measure,  that 
is,  of  other  men's  labors  ;  but  having  hope,  when  your 
faith  is  increased,  that  we  shall  be  enlarged  by  you  ac- 
cording to  our  rule  abundantly, 

16.  To  preach  the  gospel  in  the  regions  beyond  you, 
and  not  to  boast  in  another  man's  line  of  things  made 
ready  to  our  hand. 

17.  But  he  that  glorieth,  let  him  glory  in  the  Lord. 

18.  For  not  he  that  commendeth  himself  is  ap- 
proved, but  whom  the  Lord  commendeth. 

Tjiis  whole  passage  presupposes  that  Paul's  enemies 
in  Corinth  had  been  decrying  his  gospel  labors  ;  perhaps 
setting  forth  that  he  had  made  a  great  splurge  ;  had  been 
vain  of  his  success  among  the  Gentiles,  but  had  really 
done  little  compared  [probably]  with  other  Apostles 
laboring  among  Jews,  or  compared  with  themselves  ; 
and  that  his  work  was  out  of  place  in  Corinth. — Paul 
replies  that  he  did  not  perpetrate  the  folly  of  compar- 
ing himself  with  other  men  (as  they  did  of  themselves): 
that  God  had  given  him  his  field  and  had  blessed  him  to  do 
a  great  work  ;  that  God  had  helped  him  to  bring  this  gos- 
pel even  to  Corinth  and  had  fully  brought  this  city  with- 
in his  great  commission  ;  that  he  hoped  to  go  even  to  re- 
gions beyond — i.  e.     South  and  West ;  that  he  had  never 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  X.  35 1 

entered  into  other  men's  labors  and  then  assumed  to  him- 
self the  honor  due  to  them  for  their  work. — In  v.  15,  the 
phrase — "that  we  shall  be  enlarged  by  you  " — is  dark  to 
the  English  reader — the  sense  of  Paul's  word  being — that 
we  shall  be  held  in  due  honor — shall  be  magnified  up  to 
the  measure  of  our  actual  doing.  Paul  hoped  for  this  re- 
sult on  the  supposition  that  their  faith  would  be  increased. 
If  this  should  be  the  case,  then  they  might  be  expected 
to  give  him  due  credit  for  his  gospel  labors. 


-tO^- 


CHAPTEE    XI. 

The  distinctive  word  in  this  chapter  is  "  folly  " — its  one 
theme  being  self-vindication  ;  to  which  Paul  was  pushed 
and  even  forced,  entirely  against  his  will  and  his  nature,  to 
an  extent  from  which  his  whole  soul  recoiled.  In  seem- 
ing apology  for  this,  yet  often  Avith  keen  ■  irony  he  repre- 
sents himself  as  playing  the  part  of  one  half-demented,  lie 
might  very  properly  have  added  this  to  the  long  catalogue 
of  his  apostolic  sufferings  and  afflictions  (v.  23-30) — that 
he  had  to  deal  with  heartless,  base,  mean  calumniators  :  that 
to  withstand  their  calumny,  he  was  forced  to  descend  to 
self -vindication  and  self-praise  from  which  his  noble  nature 
recoiled. — To  this  cruel  compulsion,  the  christian  world 
owes  this  wonderful  record  of  Paul's  sufferings  and  perils, 
much  more  minute  than  Luke  has  given  in  his  Acts,  or 
than  appears  elsewhere  in  the  epistles. 

1.  "Would  to  God  ye  could  bear  with  me  a  little 
in  my  folly :  and  indeed  bear  with  me. 

The  second  clause  is  construed  variously  by  critics ; 
some  making  it  merely  indicative  ;  others  imperative  ;  i.e. 
some  translating  it : — Indeed  ye  do  bear  with  me  ;  others, 
— Indeed,  bear  ye  with  me.  The  latter  seems  to  me  pre- 
ferable— the  sense  being  ;  I  wish  ye  might  bear  with  some 
little  folly  from  me  : — indeed,  I  must  beg  you  to  do  so.  It 
is  a  hard  case  for  me  ;  but  for  your  sake  I  must  enter  upon 
self-vindication  against  my  bitter  opponents  and  traducers. 

2.  For  I  am  jealous  over  you  with  godly  jealousy : 


352  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XI. 

for  I  have  es]30iised.  you  to  one  Imsband,  tliat  I  may  pre- 
sent you  as  a  chaste  virgin  to  Christ. 

3.  But  I  fear,  lest  by  any  means,  as  the  serpent  be- 
guiled Eve  through  his  subtility,  so  your  minds  should 
be  corrupted  from  the  simplicity  that  is  in  Christ. 

4.  For  if  he  that  cometh  preacheth  another  Jesus, 
whom  we  have  not  preached,  or  if  ye  receive  another 
Spirit,  which  ye  have  not  received,  or  another  gospel 
which  ye  have  not  accepted,  ye  might  well  bear  with 
him. 

This  figure  of  espousing  them  as  a  pure  virgin  in  holy 
wedlock  to  Clu'ist  is  at  once  beautiful  and  strong — carry- 
ing out  the  thought  of  Ps.  45:  and  of  the  Song  of  Solomon 
— the  church  the  bride,  and  Christ  the  bridegroom.  But 
Paul  fears  for  their  moral  purity.  As  the  serpent  beguiled 
Eve,  so  his  minions  may  beguile  them.  Of  this,  there  is 
real  danger,  "for"  (v.  4),  they  are  but  too  tolerant  of  men 
who"bring  another  gospel — i.e.  another  Jesus;  a  different 
Holy  Ghost ;  and  an  unlike  gospel  message. 

The  last  clause  of  v.  4, — "  Ye  might  well  bear  with 
him,"  has  several  difficult  points  ; — e.  g.  whether  it  be,  or 
be  not,  irony;  and  whether  it  should  read — "bear  with 
him,"  or  "bear  with  me,"  the  original  having  neither,  i.e. 
no  pronoun  at  all. — Some  critics  read,  Ye  might  Avell  bear 
with  me — i.e.  if  ye  are  so  very  liberal  and  charitable  that  ye 
receive  with  open  arms  a  man  who  comes  with  another 
Jesus,  another  Spirit,  and  another  gospel. — Others  read 
it,  Ye  would  bear  Avith  him  and  think  it  well  to  do  so — 
this  "  well "  being  in  irony,  like  those  words  of  our  Lord 
to  the  Pharisees  (Mark  7:  9)  ;  "Full  well  do  ye  reject  the 
commandments  of  God  that  ye  may  keep  your  own  tradi- 
tions ! — That  must  be  doing  7oell  for  religious  teachers  ! — 
So  here  ;  ye  bear  with  such  detestable  men  very  graciously, 
very  kindly,  out  of  the  great  fulness  of  your  Christian 
charity  ! — This  I  take  to  be  Paul's  thought. — Then  the 
logic  of  the  next  verse  [gar]  assumes  this  intermediate 
point : — If  ye  have  such  gracious  charity  for  such  despica- 
ble men,  ye  surely  ought  to  be  able  to  tolerate  xi\Q,fop  I 
judge  that  I  have  fallen  no  whit  behind  or  below  those- 
super-eminent  apostles  !  This  also  is  irony,  and  supposes 
Paul  to  call  those  men  the  very  chief  apostles — as  they 
seem  to  have  claimed  to  be  ! 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XI.  353 

5.  For  I  suppose  I  was  not  a  wliit  behind  tlie  very 
cliicftest  apostles. 

6.  But  though  I  he  rude  in  speech,  yet  not  in  knowl- 
edge; but  we  have  been  thoroughly  made  manifest 
among  you  in  all  things. 

As  said  already,  v.  5  may  very  properly  be  taken  to 
refer  to  those  preachers  of  another  gospel,  who  thought 
themselves  of  the  very  first  order  of  apostles.  This  refer- 
ence cannot  be  considered  altogether  certain  ;  for  Paul 
does  not  say  those  but  the  chief  apostles.  Yet  irony  is  the 
order  of  the  passage — rules  much  of  the  thought  through 
many  of  these  verses.  Taken  as  irony,  the  words  are  sharp 
and  telling.  The  very  slight  ambiguity  consequent  upon 
saying  "'the"  rather  than  those  or  tliese,  may  have  been 
intended. — Then  (v.  6),  As  to  myself,  though  I  am  un- 
skilled in  eloquent  speech  yet  not  in  knowledge  ; — but  we 
have  made  everything  manifest  before  you,  having  no  con- 
cealments ;  and  therefore  you  must  know  perfectly  what 
we  are.  The  older  textual  authorities — Tischendorf  con- 
curring— have  the  active  and  not  the  passive  voice  ; — "  we 
having  made  everything  manifest  before  you," — instead  of, 
"being  made  thoroughly  manifest."  The  difference  is 
only  that  they  purposely  disclosed  everything  ; — kept  back 
nothing; — lived  out  their  very  selves  and  all  their  heart 
before  the  open  eyes  of  all  Corinth.  In  this  respect  Paul 
puts  himself  in  contrast  with  his  traducers. 

7.  Have  I  committed  an  oflence  in  abasing  myself 
that  ye  might  be  exalted,  because  I  have  jDreached  to 
you  the  gospel  of  God  freely  ? 

8.  I  robbed  other  churches,  taking  wages  of  them,  to 
do  you  service. 

9.  And  when  I  was  present  with  you,  and  wanted, 
I  was  chargeable  to  no  man  :  for  that  which  was  lacking 
to  me  the  brethren  which  came  from  Macedonia  sup- 
plied :  and  in  all  things  I  have  kept  myself  from  being 
burdensome  unto  you,  and  so  will  I  keep  inyseJf. 

10.  As  the  truth  of  Christ  is  in  me,  no  man  shall 
stop  me  of  this  boasting  in  the  regions  of  Achaia. 

Literally — Have  I  committed  sin  against  you,  in  hum- 
bling myself   that  ye  might  bo  exalted — in   the  point  of 


354  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XI. 

preaching  to  you  the  gospel  without  charge  ? — As  to  the 
humiliation  of  working  at  tents,  it  is  said  on  historical 
grounds  that,  presumably,  Paul's  fellow-workmen  in  the 
shop  of  Priscilla  and  Aquilla  were  slaves. — The  notion  that 
such  self-support  was  a  sin  against  them  is  slightly  ironical. 
Are  ye  so  unreasonable  as  to  claim  that  I  sinned  against 
you  in  that  self-support  ? — They  probably  said  that  Paul 
was  conscious  of  being  an  inferior  apostle,  and  therefore, 
of  having  no  claim  on  the  church  for  his  support.  In 
V.  9,  "  chargeable  to  no  man,"  is  precisely — I  made  myself 
a  burden  upon  no  one  ;  literally,  I  did  not  squat  down 
upon  him  ;  put  myself  fiat  upon  him. — Paul  solemnly  de- 
clares— no  man  shall  stop  me  from  this  boasting — the 
original  reading  thus;  This  boasting  shall  not  be  shut 
against  me — i.e.  by  stopping  my  mouth.  Thus  the  church 
at  Corinth  has  gone  upon  record,  and  passed  down  into 
history,  so  distinguished  for  its  jealousy  and  its  meanness 
that  JPaul  could  not  safely,  with  due  self-respect  and 
regard  to  his  apostolic  influence,  accept  from  them  a 
picayiine  to  meet  the  cost  of  his  daily  bread.  He  was 
compelled  to  forego  all  those  sweet  reciprocities  of  mutual 
labor  in  mutual  confidence  and  fellowship — the  common 
giving  and  receiving  in  which  one  serves  in  spiritual  things 
and  the  other  in  temporal.  Such  noble  reciprocity  as- 
sumes mutual  confidence  and  affection ;  but  alas,  Paul 
knew  but  too  well  that  his  love  and  service  for  them  were 
not  reciprocated — at  least,  were  not  by  all  the  church  ; 
and  the  exceptional  cases  ruled  the  hour  and  shut  off  the 
great  apostle  from  partaking  of  even  a  morsel  of  their 
bread. 

"As  the  truth  of  Christ  is  in  me,"  is  a  form  of  solemn 
adjuration.  Its  appearance  here  bears  witness  to  the  in- 
tensity of  Paul's  feelings,  and  to  his  painful  suspicion  of 
their  confidence  in  his  veracity. 

11.  Wherefore  ?  because  I  love  you  not  ?  God 
knoweth. 

12,  But  what  I  do,  that  I  will  do,  that  I  inay  cut  off 
occasion  from  them  which  desire  occasion  ;  that  where- 
in thej  glory,  they  may  be  found  even  as  we. 

V.  12  is  difficult.  But  this  is  the  line  of  thouglit ; — 
I  will  continue  to  do  what  I  have  hitherto  done — i.  e. 
take  not  a  penny  from  Corinth  for  my  living ; — that  I  may 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XI.  355 

cut  off  the  occasion  from  those  who  are  eager  to  seize  it  : — 
But  the  occasion  to  do  what  ?  Either  to  vilify  Paul  as  a 
covetous  money-loving  apostle  ;  or  the  occasion  to  plead 
his  example  in  defense  of  their  own  heavy  drafts  upon  the 
church  for  themselves.  It  is  quite  certain  that  they  drew 
heavily  upon  the  treasury  of  the  church  (see  v.  20) ;  and 
very  naturally  were  galled  by  this  peculiar  example  of 
Paul,  in  such  contrast  with  their  practice. — Yet  what  the 
point  was  in  which  they  gloried  ("that  wherein  they 
glory,")  is  not  altogether  clear.  Probably  it  was  in  being 
AjDOstles  of  the  first  order,  quite  above  Paul.  But  Paul 
may  here  quietly  suggest  that  if  they  wish  to  make  good 
their  claim  to  such  glory,  they  would  do  well  to  manifest 
the  proof  by  such  self-sacrifice  as  he  himself  had  shown. — 
That  they  may  get  no  advantage  over  me  in  the  point  of 
their  vaunted  superiority  ;  but  may  find  that  high  reputa- 
tion must  have  a  worthy  life  to  rest  on. 

13.  For  such  are  false  apostles,  deceitful  vt^orkers, 
transforming  themselves  into  the  apostles  of  Christ. 

14.  And  no  marvel ;  for  Satan  himself  is  transformed 
into  an  angel  of  light. 

15.  Therefore  it  is  no  great  thing  if  his  ministers 
also  be  transformed  as  the  ministers  of  righteousness ; 
whose  end  shall  be  according  to  their  vrorks. 

The  first  word  "fo7'^'  assumes  that  those  enemies  of 
Paul  were  struggling  for  a  reputation  and  standing,  of 
which  they  were  utterly  unworthy,  and  which  it  ought  to 
be  hard  work  for  them  to  gain  ',—for  they  were  really  a 
great  cheat — "false  apostles  " — putting  on  the  stolen  garb 
of  apostles  and  saints — at  which  we  need  not  be  surprised, 
for  Satan  does  the  same  thing.  Why,  then,  should  not  his 
ministers  follow  their  Master  ? — This  is  very  plain  speech 
for  Paul — wrung  from  him  doubtless,  by  the  painful 
conviction  of  its  truth  and  of  the  vital  importance  of  bear- 
ing his  solemn  testimony  against  them. 

16.  I  say  again.  Let  no  man  think  me  a  fool ;  if 
otherwise,  yet  as  a  fool  receive  me,  that  I  may  boast  my- 
seK  a  little. 

17.  That  which  I  speak,!  speak  itnot  after  the  Lord, 
but  as  it  were  foolishly,  in  this  confidence  of  boasting. 


356  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XI. 

IS.  Seeing  that  many  gloiy  after  the  flesh,  I  will 
glory  also, 

19.  For  ye  suffer  fools  gladly,  seeing  ye  yourselves 
are  wise. 

20.  For  ye  suffer,  if  a  man  bring  you  into  bondage, 
if  a  man  devour  you,  if  a  man  take  of  you,  if  a  man  exalt 
himself,  if  a  man  smite  you  on  the  face. 

Forced  again  to  self-commendation,  he  begs  a  hearing. 
If  ye,  men  of  Corinth,  therefore,  suspect  me  of  being 
partially  demented,  yet  hear  me  as  such  that  I  may  boast 
of  myself  a  little. — Observe,  I  claim  no  word  from  the 
Lord  in  what  I  am  now  to  say.  It  is  simply  self-commen- 
dation, which  I  would  gladly  omit  if  I  could. — Then  in 
irony  Paul  pleads  ; — Ye  indulge  half  idiotic  men  to  have 
their  say,  seeing  ye  have  (perhaps  all  the  more  for  having) 
a  very  comfortable  self-consciousness  of  being  wise  your- 
selves.— Ye  are  very  indulgent  toward  these  false  apos- 
tles (my  virulent  traducers)  ;  ye  bear  it  without  flinching, 
though  they  enslave  you  ;  devour  your  substance  ;  take 
Avhat  they  will ;  make  great  personal  display;  smite  you 
in  the  face. 

21.  I  speak  as  concerning  reproach,  as  though  we  had 
been  weak.  Howbeit,  whereinsoever  any  is  bold,  (I 
S23eak  foolishly,)  I  am  bold  also. 

The  first  clause  is  obscure.  The  best  construction,  in 
my  view,  is  this  :  I  speak  to  your  dishonor — how  that  we 
(when  with  you)  were  weak — quite  too  weak  to  do  such 
things  !  Ye  may  have  thought  us  weak.  We  glory  in 
being  too  weak  for  such  scandalous  ways  as  theirs  ! 

But  in  the  points  wherein  they  make  very  bold  pre- 
tensions, I  have  at  least  equal  grounds — (though  it  may 
seem  to  you  foolish  for  me  to  say  it). 

22.  Are  they  Hebrews  ?  so  am  I.  Are  they  Israel- 
ites? so  am  I.  Arc  they  the  seed  of  Abraham?  so 
am  I. 

23.  Are  they  ministers  of  Christ  ?  (I  speak  as  a  fool,) 
I  am  more ;  in  labors  more  abundant,  in  stripes  above 
measure,  iu  prisons  more  frequent,  in  death  oft. 

24.  Of  the  Jews  five  times  received  I  forty  strijyes 
save  one. 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XI.  357 

25.  Thrice  was  I  beaten  with  rods,  once  was  I  stoned, 
thrice  I  suffered  shipwreck,  a  night  and  a  day  I  have 
been  in  the  deep ; 

26.  In  journeyings  often,  in  perils  of  waters,  in 
perils  of  robbers,  in  perils  by  mine  own  countrymen,  in 
peril  by  the  heathen,  in  perils  in  the  city,  in  perils  in 
the  wilderness,  in  perils  in  the  sea,  in  perils  among  false 
brethren ; 

27.  In  weariness  and  painfulness,  in  watchings  often 
in  hunger  and  tliirst,  in  fastings  often,  in  cold  and  nak- 
edness. 

It  becomes  quite  clear  that  Paul's  traduccrs  at  Corinth 
were  Jews,  and  that  they  made  great  account  of  their  pedi- 
gree.— 

The  Jews  seem  not  only  to  have  instigated  but  inflicted 
the  persecutions  and  punishments  under  wliich  Paul  suf- 
fered. Stripes  and  stoning  were  certainly  Jewish  modes 
of  punishment;  "beating  with  rods"  may  have  been 
Eoman.  The  '•  forty  stripes  save  one  "  were  inflicted  by 
thirteen  blows  of  a  triple  lash.  The  Jewish  law  is  in  Deut. 
25:3. 

This  wonderful  grouping  of  Paul's  life-experiences  in 
missionary  hardships,  privations,  persecutions  and  perils,  is 
grandly  drawn,  and  tremendously  forcible  as  against  his 
vilifiers  who  manifestly  had  never  the  least  item  of  such  a 
record  to  show. 

As  already  said,  the  history  elsewhere  in  the  Acts  and 
Epistles  touches  a  few  of  these  historic  facts,  yet  a  few  only. 
The  reticence  of  Luke  and  of  Paul  generally  in  his  epistles 
is  beautifully  modest ;  far  as  need  be  from  making  any 
display  of  hardship,  or  of  fortitude: — content  to  wait  for 
the  reward  of  such  heroism  till  the  Master  himself  shall 
say,  "  Well  done  !  " 

28.  Besides  those  things  that  are  without,  that  which 
Cometh  upon  me  daily,  the  care  of  all  the  churches. 

29.  Who  is  weak,  and  I  am  not  weak?  who  is 
offended,  and  I  burn  not  ? 

30.  If  I  must  needs  glory,  I  will  glory  of  the  things 
which  concern  mine  infirmities. 

31.  The  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
which  is  blessed  for  evermore,  knoweth  that  I  lie  not. 

16 


358  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XI. 

The  translation — "  besides  those  things  that  are  with- 
out"— must  be  changed  to  this: — "Apart  from  the  things 
besides  " — is  the  pressure  upon  me  daily — the  care  of  all 
the  churches." — The  word  lor  '"'  pressure  "  seems  to  sug- 
gest a  mob — the  assaults  of  violent  men  (as  in  Acts  24:  12) 
— yet  against  this  precise  sense  here  lies  the  great  improb- 
ability that  Paul  would  speak  of  this  as  occuring  daily. 
Then  in  favor  of  putting  the  word  '''care"  in  apposition 
Avith  this  "assault"  is  the  absence  of  any  conjunction  to 
connect  the  two  words  as  distinct  ideas.  Our  Auth.  ver- 
sion is  therefore  probably  right  in  assuming  that  this  word 
denotes  an  onrushing  crowd  of  cares. 

The  epistles  have  often  manifested  in  a  quiet  incidental 
way  the  weight  of  these  burdens  of  care,  and  the  quick, 
outgushing  sympathies  of  Paul's  heart  with  every  weak  or 
endangered  brother. 

82.  In  Damascus  tlie  govenior  under  Aretas  the  king 
kept  tlie  city  of  tlie  Damascenes  with  a  garrison,  desir- 
ous to  apprehend  nie : 

33.  And  through,  a  window  in  a  basket  was  I  let 
down  by  the  wall,  and  escaped  his  hands. 

His  mind  having  rapidly  traversed  his  whole  life  history 
of  perils  and  labors,  recurs  naturally  not  to  the  last  but  to 
the  first  in  the  long  series — one  which  gave  him  his  first 
taste  of  life-perils,  and  which,  perhaps,  made  a  more  vivid 
and  enduring  impression  than  any  otlier — that  at  Damascus 
(Acts  9:  23-25).  From  a  house  built  on  the  city  wall  (see 
Josh.  2:  15),  and  througli  a  window  in  its  wall  front,  he  is 
let  down  in  a  rope-basket,  and  so  makes  his  first  escape 
with  life. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

The  striking  feature  of  this  chapter  is  the  heavenly 
revelations  made  to  Paul  (v.  1-12). — As  to  Paul's  object  in 
narrating  them,  it  falls  into  the  general  current  of  the 
contiguous  chapters — self-sustaining  against  the  slanders 
and  detractions  of  the  hostile  party  in  Corinth.     Paul  has 


3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XII.  359 

less  repugnance  to  this  part  of  Lis  defence  than  to  the  re- 
cital of  his  labors  or  even  sufferings,  because  in  this,  God 
was  more  prominent  and  man  less.  It  was  not  pleasant  for 
him  to  glory,  but  he  might  say  a  word  of  what  the  Lord 
had  done  for  him. 

1.  It  is  not  exjsedient  for  me  doubtless  to  glory.  I 
will  come  to  visions  and  revelations  of  the  Lord. 

"Not  expedient  to  push  this  line  of  defence  too  far  lest 
there  might  be  reaction.  It  might  lead  men  to  suspect 
him  of  vanity. — But  visions  and  revelations,  truly  from  the 
Lord,  none  could  object  to  his  briefly  relating. — '•  Visions  " 
and  "revelations"  differ  somewhat — visions  being  prim- 
arily things  shown  to  the  eye.  The  word  "  revelations  "  is 
more  broad  and  comprehensive  ;  covering  various  methods 
of  making  unseen  things  known. 

2.  I  knew  a  man  in  Christ  above  fonrteen  years  ago, 
(whether  in  the  body,  I  cannot  tell ;  or  whether  out  of 
the  body,  I  cannot  tell:  God  knoweth:)  such  a  one 
caught  up  to  the  third  heaven. 

3.  And  I  knew  such  a  man,  (whether  in  the  body,  or 
out  of  the  body,  I  cannot  tell :  God  knoweth  ;) 

4.  How  that  he  was  caught  up  into  paradise,  and 
heard  unspeakable  words,  which  it  is  not  lawful  for  a 
man  to  utter. 

5.  Of  such  a  one  will  I  glory  :  yet  of  myself  I  will 
not  glory,  but  in  mine  infirmities. 

Is  this  "  man  "  Paul  himself?  Undoubtedly.  Though  v. 
5,  apparently  makes  this  '•'  such  an  one  "  distinct  from  '•  my- 
self" [Paul],  yet  we  must  attribute  this  quasi  distinction 
to  modesty ;  for  if  this  experience  were  that  of  somebody 
else  and  not  of  Paul,  it  would  be  utterly  irrelevant  here. 
Besides,  v.  7  assumes  absolutely  that  Paul  was  himself 
the  subject  of  this  trance.  It  was  to  obviate  the  possible 
danger  of  his  being  elated  by  the  abundance  of  these  reve- 
lations that  "the  thorn  in  the  flesh"  was  permitted — 
which  thorn  was  a  very  personal  matter,  in  the  flesh  of 
Paul  and  not  of  some  other  man. 

The  words — '"'a  man  in  Christ"  must  mean  a  man  in 
closest  sympathy  and  fellowship  with  Christ,  living  really 
in  him  as  the  sphere  of  his  living. 


360  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XII. 

The  time  when — "  more  than  fourteen  years  ago  *' — was 
very  early  in  Paul's  Christian  life,  and  prior  to  the  point 
where  his  Christian  labors  were  fully  recorded.  If  this 
epistle  was  written  in  A.  D.  57,  these  visions  were  not 
later  than  A.  D.  43 — seven  years  prior  to  the  great  council 
at  Jerusalem.  They  fall  into  the  curriculum  of  Paul's 
preparatory  studies  and  preparation  for  his  apostolic  work. 

Of  the  psychological  condition  of  Paul  under  this 
experience,  we  cannot  know  much.  He  tells  us  very  dis- 
tinctly that  he  knew  but  little  on  this  point  himself.  He 
did  not  even  know  whether  he  was  in  or  out  of  tlie  body — 
i.  e.  whether  the  body  was  caught  up  to  heaven,  or  the 
soul  only.  But  it  manifestly  seemed  to  him  that  his  con- 
scious spirit  was  transferred  to  Paradise. 

On  this  question  which  may  be  pressed — whether  this 
be  not  a  mere  vision  brought  to  his  mind  as  dreams  are — 
the  scenes  coming  down  to  him  rather  than  himself  taken 
up  to  the  localities  of  the  things  themselves,  we  can  only 
say  that  Paul's  description  goes  entirely  against  the  suppo- 
sition of  a  mere  dream.  He  reiterates  the  point — "  caught 
up  to  the  third  heaven  ;"  "caught  up  to  paradise,"  and 
says  it  was  there  that  he  heard  unspeakable  words  ;  also, 
his  doubt  whether  he  were  in  or  out  of  the  body  assumes 
something  very  different  from  a  mere  vision  transpiring 
within  the  mind. 

The  question  not  a  little  discussed  among  the  early 
Fathers — whether  Paul  purposely  distinguished  between 
"the  third  heaven"  (v.  3.)  and  "paradise"  (v.  4),  and 
whether  he  meant  to  say  that  these  were  two  stages  in  this 
ascension  ; — the  first,  to  the  third  heaven  and  the  next  and 
still  higher  one  to  paradise — it  will  scarcely  profit  us  to 
push.  Celestial  geography  is  still,  to  us,  an  undeveloped 
science.  Even  if  Paul  meant  to  teach  that  the  localities 
are  two  and  not  one  and  the  same,  he  has  added  very  little 
to  our  real  knowledge.  The  probabilities,  however,  are 
very  slight  that  he  designed  to  make  any  distinction  wliat- 
ever.  All  the  other  words  being  essentially  the  same,  (in 
V.  2  and  v.  4),  the  presumption  is  in  favor  of  a  mere  repe- 
tition for  greater  emphasis. 

"Words  not  lawful  for  a  man  to  utter."' — Does  this 
mean — that  man  is  by  law  forbidden  to  utter  them  ; 
or,  rather,  that  the  uttering  is  impossible — i.  e.  to  any 
purpose,  since  the  words  there  spoken  could  not  be  intelli- 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XII.  361 

gible  to  mortals  ? — The  latter  must  be  the  sense,  as  inter- 
preted by  the  "  unsj^eakable  words  ;  "  by  the  primary  sense 
of  Paul's  word  * — a  thing  out  of  heing  — out  of  possibility  : 
and  finally,  by  the  consideration  that  prohibition  cannot 
be  easily  accounted  for,  while  impracticability  must  be 
assumed. 

Remarkably  Paul  says  not  a  word  of  seeing  any  thing, 
but  only  of  hearing  words,  which,  however,  he  Avas  per- 
fectly conscious  he  could  not  report ;  perhaps  also,  could 
not  even  translate. — So  that  we  learn  from  this  passage 
very  little  indeed  about  the  heavenly  world.     We  learn  that 
it  is  not  only  a  state  but  a  ijlace,  although  of  the  relations 
of  this  place  to  other  known  points  in  the  great  universe 
of  God,  we  are  told  nothing.     Of  things  that  he  saw ;  of 
the  time  occupied  in  the  transit ;  of  the  time  he  spent 
there ;  of  distances  in  any  respect — he  reveals  essentially 
nothing.     He  gives  us  to  understand  that  there  are  things 
to  be  heard  and  learned  there  that  cannot  be  reported,  or 
otherwise  made  known  here. — But  on  the  whole  it  is  cer- 
tainly remarkable  that  upon  the  points  above  alluded  to, 
Paul  communicated  so  very  little — so  near  to  nothing  at  all. 
— We  may,  indeed  we  must,   suppose  that  Paul  learned 
more  than  he  has  reported  here.     Did  it  result  from  those 
heavenly  revelations  that   he   had   those   longings  to  be 
''  clothed  upon,"  in  the  intermediate  state,  of  which  he 
speaks  (2  Cor.  5  :  1-5)  ;  and  that  he  said  with  unfaltering 
assurance  (as  in  1  Cor.  13: 12).     "  Then  shall  I  know  even 
as  also  I  am  known  ?  "     However  this  may  be,  we  will  at 
least  assume  that  he  himself  received  impressions  and  defi- 
nite conceptions  of  the  blessedness  of  that  state  which  be- 
came through  all  his  future  earthly  life  a  loving  inspira- 
tion to  the  utmost  endeavor,  pressing  him  onward  to  live 
as  seeing  things  invisible.     The  church  therefore  gets  the 
benefit  of  these  revelations,  not  first  but  second  hand  ; — 
not  through  what  Paul  reported  directly,  but  through  the 
inspiring  impulses  and  the  deathless  energy  which  they 
imparted  to  his  spirit  and  labors. — Of  which,  all  we  need 
say  is — So  God  would  have  it.     It  is  of  small  use  to  us  to 
wish  it  had  been  otherwise.     The  Lord  understands  best 
how  closely  to  shut  his  people  up  to  walking  by  faith,  not 
by  sight. 

*(Exon  from  exesti.) 


3G2  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XII. 

Of  one  who  has  had  such  experiences  (v.  5)  he  might 
sjjeak  as  greatly  distinguished  ;  but  of  myself  (says  Paul, 
putting  himself  in  this  quasi  contrast  with  the  man  of  such 
revelations),  I  will  glory  in  nothing  save  my  infirmities. 
This  is  delicate  ground  to  tread,  and  Paul  touches  it  with 
inimitable  tact — the  demand  for  self- vindication  pushing 
him  sternly  forward  ;  but  his  modesty  and  the  extreme 
delicacy  of  self-j)raise  under  any  circumstances,  holding 
him  back. 

6.  For  though  I  would  desire  to  glory,  I  shall  not  be 
a  fool ;  for  I  will  saj  the  truth :  but  now  I  forbear,  lest 
any  man  should  think  of  me  above  that  which  he  seeth 
me  to  l)e,  or  that  he  heareth  of  me. 

Nor  though  I  should  wish  \ivill  is  his  word] — to  boast 
of  myself,  I  shall  not  be  a  fool,  for  I  shall  speak  only  the 
truth,  and  only  sucli  truth  as  the  case  seems  to  compel  me 
to  speak  ;  but  even  so,  I  forbear,  lest  any  one  should  judge 
of  me  above  what  he  sees  in  me  or  hears  from  me.  I  wish 
no  man  to  estimate  me  above  what  I  prove  myself  to  be 
before  his  eyes. 

1.  And  lest  I  should  be  exalted  above  measure  through 
the  abundance  of  the  revelations,  there  was  given  to  me 
a  thorn  in  the  flesh,  the  messenger  of  Satan  to  l3ulfet  me, 
lest  I  should  be  exalted  above  measure. 

Precisely  what  this  ''  thorn  in  the  flesh  "  was,  Paul  has 
not  seen  fit  to  divulge. ,  Some  one  has  said  that  if  the  case 
had  been  narrated  by  Luke,  the  physician,  his  medical 
knowledge  might  have  led  (or  betrayed)  him  into  such  de- 
scriptive terms  as  would  have  disclosed  the  secret.  But 
Paul  did  not  care  to  give  to  all  the  world  the  particulars 
of  tliis  infirmity.  It  was  certainly  physical  (•'•'  in  the  flesh  "); 
it  was  an  infirmity  (v.  9)  ;  it  was  an  annoyance  as  painful 
infirmities  in  the  flesh  are  wont  to  be  :  it  was  doubtless 
keenly  painful;  the  chosen  word  '•  thorn  "  sufficiently  shows 
this.  No  doubt  it  embarrassed  his  labors  ;  so  that,  for  this 
reason,  he  would  feel  justified  in  praying  to  the  Lord  to 
take  it  away. 

Paul's  reserve  in  defining  it  has  been  a  sore  annoyance 
to  many  critics.  But  no  censure  should  be  passed  upon 
Paul  for  tliis  : — for  what  sensible  man  ever  thinks  it  his 


3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XII.  3G3 

duty  to  let  all  mankind  know  wliat  infirmities  lie  has  in 
the  flesh  ? 

Very  remarkable  is  the  intimation  of  Satanic  agency  in 
this  visitation; — "a  messenger"  [angel]  "of  Satan" — 
something  sent  by  him.  This  fact  is  entirely  in  harmony 
with  other  scriptural  representations  of  Satanic  power  over 
mortals — when  he  has  permission — as  in  the  case  of  Job  ; 
the  case  of  demoniacal  possessions  ;  and  to  name  no  other, 
the  case  of  the  excommunicate — '•'delivered  over  to  Satan 
for  the  destruction  of  the  flesh"  (1  Cor.  5:5). 

The  Satanic  spirit  is  never  slow  to  spring  into  any  such 
opportunity  to  inflict  sufferings.  To  harass  and  torment 
such  a  man  as  Paul,  we  may  suppose  to  have  been  specially 
gratifying  to  his  hellish  malice.  When  in  fact,  it  resulted 
in  making  Paul  a  holier  and  mightier  man,  it  only  afforded 
another  example  under  the  universal  law — that  the  wrath 
of  Satan  and  of  his  minions  always  works  out  God's  praise. 

Paul  understood — if  not  at  first,  yet  ultimately — that 
God's  purpose  in  permitting  this  thorn  in  his  flesh  was  to 
forestal  undue  elation  and  pride  in  consequence  of  these 
abundant  revelations.  God  saw  danger  doubtless,  of  which 
Paul  was  not  at  the  time  aware  ;  and  therefore,  as  a  kind 
friend,  provided  this  remedy — painful  in  the  flesh,  but 
most  wholesome  to  the  spirit — as  Paul  shows  in  the  sequel. 

8.  For  this  thing  I  besought  the  Lord  thrice,  that  it 
might  depart  from  me. 

9.  And  he  said  unto  me,  My  grace  is  sufficient  for 
thee:  for  my  strength  is  made  perfect  in  weakness. 
Most  gladly  therefore  will  I  rather  glory  in  my  iufirmi- 
lies,  that  the  power  of  Christ  may  rest  upon  me. 

10.  Therefore  I  take  pleasure  in  infirmities,  in  re- 
proaches, in  necessities,  in  persecutions,  in  distresses  for 
Christ's  sake  :  for  when  I  am  weak,  then  am  I  strong. 

"While  we  have  no  reason  to  blame  Paul  for  his  reti- 
cence as  to  the  physical  ailment  [•'•'  thorn  "],  we  have  the 
utmost  reason  to  thank  him  for  his  frankness  in  recording 
so  fully  the  spiritual  processes  by  which  God  brought  so 
much  good  out  of  that  sore  evil. — First,  it  threw  him  upon 
prayer,  that  the  Lord  would  take  it  away.  It  is  notica- 
blo  that  Paul  remembered,  all  through  those  fourteen 
3'ears,  how  many  times  he  had  besought  the  Lord  for  this 


364  3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XII. 

relief.  Prayer  with  him  was  not  made  iip  of  "  vaiu  repe- 
titious " — ill  which  no  man  can  tell  how  many  times  he 
has  prayed  for  any  one  thing  [unless  he  kept  the  count  on 
a  string  of  beads].  Other  Christians  besides  Romanists  are 
liable  to  make  so  little  of  j^rayer  that  it  would  be  quite  im- 
possible for  them  to  remember  any  real  struggle  of  soul,  or 
season  of  conscious  admission  into  the  audience  of  the 
Most  High. — But  Paul  knew  that  he  had  prayed  three 
times,  very  definitely,  and  doubtless  very  earnestly,  with 
such  consciously  near  approach  to  God  that  he  felt  it  to 
be  prayer.  Then,  apparently  not  till  after  the  third  time, 
the  Lord  answered,  (answered  once  for  all,  the  tense  of 
Paul's  word — "  he  has  said  it " — implying  a  final,  standing 
reply) ;  My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee  ;  for  the  power  [so 
the  JDctter  textual  authorities  (S.  V.  A.)  have  it]  the  j^ower 
is  perfectly  developed,  only  in  weakness  ; — i.  e.  only  under 
the  conditions,  in  the  state,  of  human  weakness. — "  The 
power "  is  here  the  well  known  power  of  God  which 
bears  special,  peculiar  relations  to  man's  weakness.  It  is 
when  man  is  consciously  weak  that  this  power  becomes 
most  fully  manifest  to  the  human  consciousness  and  takes 
most  precious  effect  in  sustaining  the  otherwise  sinking 
soul. 

Therefore  Paul  declares — Most  joyfully  will  I  glory  in 
my  infirmities  that  the  power  of  Christ  may  overshadow — 
overspread  me  as  a  tent ;  come  down  upon  me  as  an  en- 
veloping presence  [as  his  Greek  work  suggests].  This 
thought  may  well  bear  to  be  repeated  and  expanded  : — 
Therefore  I  am  Avell  pleased  with  [in  and  under]  infirmi- 
ties, reproaches  etc. — for  Paul  proposes  to  extend  this 
blessed  doctrine  to  every  sort  of  human  infirmity,  burden, 
strait,  trial,  peril ; — to  inspire  his  readers  to  make  a  per- 
sonal application  of  it  to  all  possible  diversities  of  condi- 
tion. Anything,  everything,  I  may  have  to  bear  for  Christ 
shall  be  borne  joyftilly,  and  even  thankfully,  for  when  I  am 
weak,  [in  myself],  then  am  I  mighty  [in  Christ].  The 
more  my  own  strength  seems  to  go  out  of  me,  the  more 
conscious  shall  I  become  of  being  tilled  with  Christ.  This 
is  Christian  experience.  Paul  puts  in  no  exclusive  claim 
to  it ;  but  on  the  contrary,  very  plainly  opens  the  doctrine 
for  every  Christian's  personal  use. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  suggest,  moreover,  that  the  very 
indefiniteness  of  Paul's  "  thorn  "  leaves  the  way  open  for 


2  CORIJsTHIANS.— CHAP.  XII.  365 

every  Christiaa  under  any  and  every  possible  infirmity,  to 
say  of  himself  ; — Tliis  is  my  thorn  in  the  flesh.  With  the 
utmost  propriety  I  can  put  myself  in  the  case  of  Paul.  If 
he  had  said  definitely — There  was  sent  upon  me  for  a  thorn 
in  my  flesh  sore  eyes  (as  some  have  supposed),  or  the  tooth- 
ache, then  it  might  seem  plausible  to  think  of  Christ's 
promise  as  good  for  that  special  sort  of  thorn,  and  perhaps 
a  little  uncertain  as  to  any  other  sort.  But  now  the  case 
of  Paul  is  left  open  to  be  applied  to  every  possible  infirmity. 
I  may  take  its  promise  as  my  own  against  every  pain  I  feel 
or  burden  I  have  to  bear. 

11.  I  am  become  a  fool  in  glorying ;  ye  have  com- 
pelled me  :  for  I  ought  to  have  been  commended  of 
you :  for  in  nothing  am  I  behind  the  very  chiefest  aj)os- 
tles,  though  I  be  nothing. 

12.  Truly  the  signs  of  an  apostle  were  -svrouglit  among 
you  in  all  patience,  in  signs,  and  wonders,  and  miglity 
deeds. 

13.  For  what  is  it  wherein  ye  were  inferior  to  other 
churches,  except  it  he  that  I  myself  was  not  burdensome 
to  you  ?     Forgive  me  this  wrong. 

Paul  returns  to  the  subject  of  his  enforced  self-com- 
mendation. He  is  aware  it  may  seem  to  them  very  foolish; 
but  let  them  consider — they  have  forced  him  to  it.  The 
necessity  has  been  keenly  painful.  They  ought  to  have 
defended  him  against  his  calumniators  ;  and  so  have  re- 
lieved him  of  this  necessity.  AH  the  miraculous  signs 
which  endorse  a  genuine  apostleship,  he  had  wrought  be- 
fore their  eyes,  as  they  very  well  knew.  Why  then  did 
they  allow  his  enemies  to  impeach  his  apostolic  com- 
mission ? 

Why  had  they  not  vindicated  his  apostleship  in  a  way 
to  confound  his  traducers  and  relieve  Paul  from  this  bitter 
necessity  for  self-vindication  ? — It  was  the  more  reasonable 
for  him  to  ask  and  to  expect  this  from  them  because  through 
his  apostolic  ministrations,  their  church  had  been  pre-emi- 
nently blessed  with  spiritual  gifts.  In  fact  they  had  fallen 
behind  no  other  church  in  the  affluence  of  these  gifts,  nor 
indeed  in  any  privilege  or  distinction,  unless  it  be  in  the 
point  of  having  never  been  burdened  to  the  amount  of  a 
picayune  with  his  support.     With  keen  irony,   which  he 


366  2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XII. 

doubtless  hoped  their  dull  sensibilities  might  feel,  he  tidds  ; 
— Forgive  this  wrong — this  injustice  [his  word  means]. 

14.  Behold,  the  third  time  I  am  ready  to  come  to 
yoii ;  and  I  will  not  be  bnrdensome  to  you :  for  I  seek 
not  yours,  but  you:  for  the  children  ought  not  to  lay  up 
for  the  parents,  but  the  parents  for  the  children. 

15.  And  I  will  very  gladly  spend  and  be  spent  for 
you ;  though  the  more  abundantly  I  love  you,  the  less  I 
be  loved. 

16.  But  be  it  so,  I  did  not  burden  you :  nevertheless, 
being  crafty,  I  caught  you  with  guile. 

I  am  ready  now  to  come  to  you  for  the  third  time  ;  but 
I  shall  still  refuse  to  take  a  penny  from  you  for  my  support. 
I  Avill  never  give  occasion  to  my  traducers  to  defame  my 
character,  as  they  would  do  if  I  were  to  lay  myself  open  in 
any  wise  to  their  slanders. 

The  moral  sentiment — ''I  seek  not  yours  but  you" — 
was  from  Paul's  lips  both  nobly  true  and  grandly  sublime. 
He  was  not  laboring  for  their  money  but  for  their  souls. 
He  could  say  this  honestly,  and  not  a  man  of  them  could 
gainsay  it. — A  wonderful  record  this,  and  a  precious  ex- 
ample in  the  spirit  of  it  for  all  gospel  ministers  to  follow  ! 

But  on  the  nature  of  his  reasoning  in  this  case — ''for" 
the  children  ought  not  to  lay  up  for  the  parents,  but  the 
parents  for  the  children  " — we  must  pause  a  moment  to 
ask  whether  Paul  really  intends  to  go  back  upon  his  own 
doctrine  that  the  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,  and  the 
gospel  minister  of  his  bread  from  his  people  ?  On  its  face 
this  seems  like  an  argument  to  prove  that  the  minister 
ought  to  support  his  people  with  bread  and  clothing,  and 
not  his  people  support  him.  But  we  should  do  violence  to 
our  own  common  sense  and  to  Paul's  common  sense  also  if 
we  were  to  assume  this  to  be  his  honest  meaning.  Bather 
let  us  put  this  argument  to  the  account  of  the  irony  which 
tinges  the  greater  part  of  this  discussion — as  if  he  would 
say,  Ye  may  perhaps  think  that  this  policy  of  yours  toward 
me  comes  under  the  law  of  parents  providing  for  their 
children.  Ye  need  some  skill  and  tact  to  make  the  worse 
appear  the  better  reason  : — I  give  you  this  gratis  ! — It  is 
perhaps  supposable  that  he  meant  to  suggest  that  he  had 
been  to  them  trulv  a  father  and  had  loved  them  as  his  chil- 


3  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XII.  3^7 

dren,  yet  it  were  a  pity  they  should  abuse  him  for  his 
parental  love  and  self-sacrifice  in  their  behalf  ! 

In  this  line  of  thought  he  subjoins  : — Truly  I  will  most 
joyfully  spend  my  strength  and  be  utterly  spent  for  your 
souls,  [so  is  the  Greeh].  The  last  clause  Tischendorf  punc- 
tuates thus  ; — If  I  shall  love  you  more  abundantly,  shall  I 
be  the  less  loved  ?  Must  I  expect  this — and  must  I  bear 
it  ?     Is  not  this  cruel  and  heartless  ? 

But  be  this  so — as  it  may  ;  "  /  have  not  been  burden- 
some to  you" — said  with  emphasis  upon  I  [for  Paul  wrote 
"ego"  for  emphasis].  However  others  may  burden  you, 
/am  guiltless  in  this  thing;  but  being  wily,  I  caught  you 
with  guile" — ironical  again  ; — I  stole  away  from  you  that 
fine  opportunity  for  scandal  against  me,  which  some  of  you 
were  ready  to  seize  !     Forgive  me  this  wrong  ! 

17.  Did  I  make  a  gain  of  you  by  any  of  tlieni  Avhom 
I  sent  unto  you  ? 

■  18.  I  desired  Titus,  and  with  him  I  sent  a  brother. 
Did  Titus  make  a  gain  of  you?  walked  we  not  in  the 
same  spirit  ?  icalhed  we  not  in  the  same  steps  ? 

Above  reproach  myself  on  the  score  of  covetous  exact- 
ions from  you,  will  you  say  that  I  made  Titus  and  his  asso- 
ciates my  tools  for  defrauding  you  ?  Did  they  do  any  such 
things  ?    Not  they. 

19.  Again,  think  ye  that  we  excuse  ourselves  unto 
you  ?  yvQ  s^^cak  before  God  in  Christ :  but  v:e  do  all 
things,  dearly  beloved,  for  your  edifying. 

20.  For  I  fear,  lest,  when  I  come,  I  shall  not  find  you 
such  as  I  would,  and  that  I  shall  be  found  unto  you  such 
as  ye  would  not ;  lest  there  be  debates,  envyings,  wraths, 
strifes,  backbitings,  whisperings,  swellings,  tumults : 

21.  And  lest,  when  I  come  again,  my  God  will  hum- 
ble me  among  you,  and  that  I  shall  bewail  many  wdiich 
have  sinned  already,  and  have  not  repented  of  the  un- 
cleanness  and  fornication  and  lasciviousness  which  tliey 
have  committed. 

The  better  textual  authorities  have  the  first  Greek 
word — not  [palin]  "  again  ;  "  but  [palai]  for  a  long  time, 
or  long  ago,  Eead  therefore,  not  interrogatively  but  af- 
firmatively ; — ye  have  long  been  thinking  tliat  we   were 


368  2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XII. 

apologizing  to  you.  '•'  We  speak  before  God  in  Ciirist " 
[solemn  asseveration] — "All  these  things,  beloved,  are  not 
for  our  self-vindication  but  for  your  edification.  Your 
spiritual  good,  not  our  reputation,  has  been  our  object. 
For  I  have  great  anxiety  for  you  lest  I  shall  not  find  you 
what  I  would,  and  lest  ye  should  find  me  what  ye  will  not 
enjoy.  For  I  fear  lest  again  when  I  come,  I  shall  be  hu- 
miliated among  you  by  your  scandalous  sins,  and  that  I 
shall  find  yet  otliers  who  have  grossly  sinned  and  have  not 
rejiented.  Paul  had  been  greatly  comforted  by  the  repen- 
tance of  the  incestuous  man  ; 'but  he  had  painful  fears  that 
other  sins  of  similar  sort  would  be  found  among  them  yet 
unrepented  of  and  not  forsaken. 


CHAP  TEE   XIII. 

The  central  thought  in  this  closing  chapter  is  that 
when  he  shall  come  again,  he  shall  use  his  apostolic  au- 
thority with  firmness  and  decision — not  to  say  with  un- 
sparing severity.     Flagrant  sins  must  be  put  away. 

1.  This  is  the  third  time  I  am  coming  to  you.  In 
the  mouth  of  two  or  three  witnesses  shall  every  word  bo 
established. 

This  allusion  to  the  Mosaic  law  of  testimony  suggests 
vei'y  decisively  that  he  purposes  to  make  thorough  investi- 
gation. 

2.  I  told  you  before,  and  foretell  you,  as  if  I  were 
present,  the  second  time  ;  and  being  absent  now  I  write 
to  them  which  heretofore  have  sinned,  and  to  all  other, 
that,  if  I  come  again,  I  will  not  spare  : 

3.  Since  yc  seek  a  j^roof  of  Christ  speaking  in  me, 
which  to  yon-ward  is  not  weak,  but  is  mighty  in  yon. 

4.  For  tliough  he  was  crucified  through  w'eakness, 
yet  he  liveth  by  the  power  of  God.  For  we  also  are 
Aveak  in  him,  but  wc  shall  live  with  him  by  the  power 
of  God  toward  yon. 

In  the  middle  of  v.  2   the  corrected   text  omits    the 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XIII.  309 

words,  *•'  I  write/'  and  puts  the  sentence  in  this  form  ; — 
"As  when  present  the  second  time,  and  now  when  absent 
I  have  forewarned  and  now  forewarn  those  who  have  pre- 
viously sinned  and  all  others,  that  if  I  come  again  I  shall 
not  spare.  In  as  much  as  ye  seek  a  proof  of  Christ  speak- 
ing in  me — of  that  Christ  who  is  not  weak  toward  you  but 
is  mighty  among  you — ye  shall  have  it. 

In  V.  4  a  close  analogy  is  drawn  between  the  case  of 
Christ  and  that  of  his  apostles  in  the  two  points  :  first, 
weakness  ;  then  strength  :  for  (a)  Christ  was  crucilied  in 
weakness  [from  or  in  consequence  of  weakness] — but  lives 
by  virtue  of  the  power  of  God  : — So  likewise  (b)  we  are 
weak  in  and  with  him  ;  but  shall  live  with  him  by  means 
[out  of]  the  power  of  God  toward  you. 

5.  Examine  yourselves,  whether  ye  be  in  the  faith : 
13rove  your  own  selves.  Know  ye  not  your  own  selves, 
how  that  Jesus  Christ  is  in  you,  excej)t  ye  be  rei^ro- 
bates  ? 

6.  But  I  trust  that  yc  shall  know  that  we  are  not 
rej)robates. 

Examine  not  us  apostles,  but  your  very  selves,  whether 
ye  be  truly  '"'in  the  faith" — having  true  living  faith  in 
Christ.— Do  ye  not  know  yourselves  [not  in  the  sense  know 
of  yourselves]  but  do  ye  not  know  yourselves  sufficiently  to 
know  that  Christ  Jesus  is  in  you,  except  ye  be  reprobates? 
— '•' Keprobate  "  is  in  the  sense  of  disapproved,  disowned, 
rejected  of  God. 

I  trust  ye  shall  know  that  we  are  not  such.  We  shall 
labor  to  evince  our  fidelity  to  Christ  before  and  toward 
you,  when  we  come  again. 

7.  Now  I  pray  to  God  that  yc  do  no  evil ;  not  that 
we  should  appear  approved,  but  that  ye  should  do  that 
which  is  honest,  though  we  be  as  reprobates. 

8.  For  we  can  do  nothing  against  the  tnith,  but  for 
the  truth. 

9.  For  we  are  glad,  when  we  are  weak,  and  ye  are 
strong :  and  this  also  we  wish,  even  your  perfection. 

10.  Therefore  I  write  these  things  being  absent,  lest 
being  present  I  should  use  sharpness, 'according  to  the 


370  2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XIII. 

jDOwer  wliicli  tlie  Lord  liatli  given  mc  to  edification,  and 
not  to  destniction. 

But  our  great  prayer  to  God  is  for  your  pure  Christian 
life  rather  than  for  our  own  self-vindication.  We  pray  that 
ye  may  do  no  evil  thing,  and  we  pray  thus,  not  that  we 
may  appear  approved,  having  a  good  record  from  your 
blameless  life — i.  e.  Ave  desire  your  purity  for  your  own 
sake,  and  not  for  its  bearing  upon  our  reputation.  We 
pray  that  ye  may  do  all  that  is  noble,  even  though  we  may 
seem  to  be  reprobates. 

In  V.  8  we  cannot  interpret  "  truth  "  to  mean  truth  in 
the  abstract — i.  e.  true  doctrine  ;  but  truth  in  the  con- 
crete, as  developed  in  genuine  Christian  life.  Paul  there- 
fore means — AVe  can  do  nothing  against  but  only  for, 
and  in  behalf  of,  your  upright,  blameless  life.  This  is 
our  supreme  purpose  and  endeavor. — The  idea  of  truth, 
abstractly  considered,  would  here  be  foreign  from  the  sub- 
ject of  thought  and  remark. 

We  rejoice  though  we  are  weak  if  only  ye  are  strong  ; 
and  this  is  the  burden  of  our  prayer — your  real  perfec- 
tion. 

These  things  Paul  writes  in  the  hope  of  obviating  the 
necessity  of  using  severe  measures  of  discipline  and  punish- 
ment when  lie  comes  in  person. 

11.  Finally,  brethren,  fare^vell.  Be  perfect,  be  of 
good  comfort,  be  of  one  inind,  live  in  peace ;  and  the 
God  of  love  and  peace  shall  be  with  you. 

12.  Greet  one  another  with  a  holy  kiss. 

13.  All  the  saints  salute  you. 

14.  The  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  love 
of  God,  and  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost  he  with 
you  all.     Amen. 

^[  The  second  epistle  to  the  Corinthians  was  written 
from  Philippi,  a  city  of  Macedonia,  by  Titus  and  Lucas. 

These  farewell  words  are  the  outbreathing  of  a  wise 
and  noble,  loving  heart. 

The  better  text  omits  the  full  period  in  v.  11,  reading 
it — '-'As  to  the  rest,  rejoice  ;  be  perfect"  [the  object  of 
his  prayer  as  in  v.  9]  ;  '"'  be  comforted  ;  be  of  one  mind," 
and  not  of  many  minds — jarring,  conflicting,  contending  ; 
live  in  peace  and  'not  in  strife  and  bitterness.     So  shall  the 


2  CORINTHIANS.— CHAP.  XVIII.  371 

God  of  love  and  peace  be  with  you. — Let  Christian  sahita- 
tions  with  the  kiss  of  love  be  often  given  to  each  other. — 
All  the  saints  with  one  accord  send  their  salutation  to  you. 

The  closing  doxology  is  a  model  of  terseness  and  beauty; 
ever  dear  to  the  Christian  heart  through  all  the  ages  because 
of  the  equal  honor  it  gives  to  the  Son,  to  the  Father  and 
to  the  Spirit ;  imploring  grace  from  the  Son  ;  love  from 
the  Father,  the  communion  of  fellowship  from  the  Holy 
Ghost. — No  name  of  Prophet  or  Apostle  is  here;  counted 
into  this  sacred  list ;  nor  of  Mary,  the  "  holy  mother  ; '' 
nor  even  of  Gabriel.  The  heart  of  Paul  and  of  every  New 
Testament  saint  would  recoil  from  tlie  blasphemy  of  put- 
ting any  such  name  in  this  category,  or  indeed  any  other 
name  save  of  these  three  ;  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost. 

We  need  not  regard  this  verse  as  a  formal  argument  by 
Paul  to  prove  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  liather  its  testi- 
mony for  that  doctrine  comes  in  the  sweet  way  of  assum- 
ing its  truth,  and  then  interweaving  it  into  the  life-pulsa- 
tions of  the  Christian  soul — the  sympathies  of  holy  prayer 
and  worship. 


APPENDIX  A. 


ox  PAUL'S   USAGE  OF  THE   TERM   "LAW"   IN   CERTAIN 
PASSAGES  WRITTEN  TO  THE  ROMANS  AND  GALATIANS. 

The  laws  of  interpretation  which  legitimately  control 
the  sense  and  bearings  of  the  passages  referred  to  have  been 
naturally  developed  in  their  place  in  the  Commentary. 
But  the  importance  of  the  themes  involved  ;  the  sad  mis- 
apprehensions as  to  them,  not  uncommon  in  our  times,  and 
their  vital  bearings  upon  christian  exjierience,  seem  to 
justify  a  more  extended  discussion. — Tlie  running  notes  of 
a  Commentary  not  affording  the  desired  opportunity  for 
presenting  the  subject  in  all  its  bearings,  such  opportunity 
is  sought  in  the  free  scope  of  a  special  dissertation  in  the 
appendix. 

The  following  are  standard  passages  of  the  class  re- 
ferred to. 

"  Ye  are  not  under  the  law  but  under  grace."  (Rom. 
6:  14). 

''  Wherefore,  my  brethren,  ye  also  are  become  dead  to 
the  law  by  the  body  of  Christ."     (Rom.  7:4). 

"But  now  we  are  delivered  from  the  law,  that  being 
dead  wherein  we  were  held."     (Rom.  7:  6). 

Therefore  we  conclude  that  a  man  is  justified  by  faith 
without  the  deeds  of  the  law."     (Rom.  3:  28). 

"  For  I  through  the  law  am  dead  to  the  law,  that  I 
might  live  unto  God."     (Gal.  2:  19). 

"  But  if  ye  be  led  by  the  Spirit  ye  are  not  under  the 
law."     (Gal.  5:  18). 

"  Before  faith  came  we  were  kept  under  the  law,  shut 
up  unto  the  faith  which  should  afterwards  be  revealed. 
Wherefore  the  law  was  our  schoolmaster  to  bring  us  to 
Christ  that  we  might  be  justified  by  faith.  But  after  that 
faith  is  come,  we  are  no  longer  under  a  schoolmaster." 
(Gal.  3:  23-25). 

"  Stand  fast  therefore,  in  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ 
hath  made  us  free,  and  be  not  entangled  again  with  the 
yoke  of  bondage."     (Gal.  5:  1). 


874:  PAUL'S  USAGE  OF  THE  TERM  "  LAW  " 

To  read  these  passages  even  cursorily  will  suffice  to 
suggest  to  most  minds  that  evils  have  not  unnaturally- 
arisen  from  misconception  of  their  true  significance.  To 
many,  the  question  what  the  term  "law"  can  mean  here, 
has  been  seriously  perplexing  ;  while  yet  another  class, 
rushing  rashly  upon  a  false  interpretation,  have  suffered 
yet  sadder  evils  than  perplexity — perverting  these  passages 
to  the  result  of  dangerous  errors. — Comprehensively,  the 
mischiefs  refez'red  to  have  lain  chiefly  in  these  two  direc- 
tions; (a)  Conscientious  minds  have  been  perplexed  and 
confused  because  these  passages  have  seemed  to  abrogate 
the  present  claims  of  the  moral  laAV. — (b)  Minds  not  spec- 
ially conscientious  have  by  misinterpretation,  perverted 
these  passages  to  the  extent  of  setting  aside  the  claims  of 
the  moral  law,  assuming  the  gospel  to  be  its  sufficient  and 
universal  substitute,  and  so  superseding  all  divine  law  as  a 
rule  of  duty. 

This  general  view  of  the  evils  that  have  arisen  and  are 
liable  to  arise  from  the  misconception  and  abuse  of  these 
passages  will  suffice,  I  trust,  to  awaken  interest  in  our 
proposed  investigation.-  The  gravity  of  the  questions  at 
issue  and  the  greatness  of  the  evils  incident  to  misconcep- 
tion will  justify  an  effort  to  reach  an  exposition  which  not 
only  may  be  but  must  be  the  true  one.  We  reach  this  cer- 
tainty only  as  we  build  on  valid  principles  of  interpretation. 

Hence  it  is  well  to  approach  the  subject  along  this  line 
of  enquiry  ;  viz.  How  came  it  to  pass  that  Paul  should 
speak  of  the  "  law  "  in  this  way  ?  How  can  we  account 
for  these  very  peculiar  forms  of  expression — these,  appa- 
rently, very  extraordinary  statements  ?  A  just  and  fall 
answer  to  these  questions  must  suggest  the  true  meaning 
of  the  Apostle. 

Observe  then,  first :  All  these  passages  occur  in  the  two 
epistles  above  named — that  to  the  llomans,  and  that  to  the 
Galatians.  No  statements  of  this  sort  occur  in  any  other 
epistles  of  Paul,  nor  in  any  other  part  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. This  fact  should  by  itself  afford  the  clew  to  their 
just  exposition.  For  it  leads  us  to  enquire  what  there  may 
have  been  in  Eome  and  in  Galatia  that  was  peculiar. 
What  peculiar  people  were  resident  there,  having  what 
peculiar  notions  as  to  law  in  its  relations  to  the  salvation 
of  men  ? 

These  questions  are   readily  ansAvcred.      The  people 


TO  THE  ROMANS  AND   GALATIANS.  375 

specially  addressed  in  Eome  and  in  Galatia  were  Jews, 
either  professedly  christian  converts  from  among  the  Jews, 
or  at  least  men  of  Jewish  faith  and  education  who  were 
accessible  to  the  Apostle's  instructions,  whom  his  written 
words  might  reach,  and  to  whom,  therefore,  he  addressed 
himself,  and  consequently  adjusted  his  argument,  and  to 
whose  usage  of  religious  terms  lie  conformed  himself  in 
his  statements.* 

These  Jews  had  certain  notions  or  ideas  peculiar  to 
themselves  which  they  comprehended  under  this  term 
"law."  Now  it  is  entirely  fundamental  to  our  enquiry 
to  ascertain  what  these  peculiar  ideas  were.  For  there 
cannot  be  the  least  doubt  that  Paul  uses  this  term  in  their 
peculiai'  sense  of  it.  Addressing  them,  he  adjusts  his 
speech  to  their  usage  of  terms,  lie  must  of  necessity  do 
this  if  he  would  be  understood,  and  he  must  make  himself 
understood  if  he  vfould  make  his  letters  of  any  value 
whatever.     There  is  no  law  of  language  more  imperative 

*  While  it  is  not  vital  to  our  argument,  it  may  yet  be  a  matter 
of  interest  and  not  without  its  value,  to  note  certain  diversities  of 
toue  and  of  argument  observable  when  we  compare  Paul  to  the  Ro- 
mans with  Paul  to  the  Galatians.  At  Rome,  the  metropolis  of  the 
world,  there  had  congregated  a  class  of  Jews  cultured  manifestly 
much  above  the  average  Jewish  standard — men  who  said  to  Paul — 
"  We  desire  to  hear  of  thee  what  thou  thinkest ;"  and  before  whom, 
in  response  to  this  desire,  Paul  expounded  and  testified  the  king- 
dom of  God,  persuading  them  concerning  Jesus  both  out  of  the  law 
of  Moses  and  out  of  the  prophets  from  morning  till  evening  "  (Acts 
28  :  22,  23).  To  such  Jews,  competent  and  ready  to  follow  him  into 
the  great  depths  of  revealed  truth,  he  wrote  those  masterly  expo- 
sitions of  the  gospel  scheme  which  appear  in  his  epistle  to  the  Ro- 
mans, grappling  with  the  profoundest  problems  of  theological  sci- 
ence as  if  pleasantly  assured  that  his  readers  were  capable  and 
eager  for  such  investigations.  His  tone  is  always  respectful  as  of 
one  aware  that  they  held  their  religious  views  by  virtue  of  life-long 
education  ;  yet  deeply  earnest  and  aflectionate,  and  probably  we  may 
say,  sympathetic,  for  he  manifestly  thought  of  them  as  being  what 
himself  was  through  all  his  earlier  years. 

Quite  otherwise  is  the  tone  of  his  expostulations  and  rebukes  in 
his  letter  to  the  Galatians.  Their  Judaism  seems  not  to  have  come 
to  them  so  much  through  early  education.  It  was  rather  inoculated 
into  them  by  Judaiziug  emissaries  whose  spirit  Paul  abhorred  and 
whose  character  he  could  not  respect.  His  Galatian  converts  who 
had  yielded  weakly  to  their  seductions,  Paul  deemed  worthy  of 
stern  rebuke  for  that  weakness  and  folly. 

On  the  points  to  be  specially  discussed  in  our  essay,  Paul  took 
essentially  the  same  ground  in  these  epistles  and  stated  his  views 
in  mostly  the  same  language. 


376  PAUL'S  USAGE  OF  THE  TERM  "LAW" 

and  more  absolutely  universal  than  this — that  the  man 
who  proposes  to  transmit  his  thought  to  other  minds  must 
use  words  which  they  will  understand,  and  consequently, 
in  their  sense  of  those  words.  Paul,  therefore,  in  address- 
ing Jews  at  Kome  or  in  Galatia,  must  have  used  the  word 
"law"  in  this  sense. 

What  was  that  peculiar  sense  of  this  word  as  related  to 
salvation  9 — The  answer  is  readily  reached.  Comprehen- 
sively stated,  the  points  j^eculiar  in  their  usage  of  the  term 
"law"  were  threefold  : — (1)  They  put  more  into  that  term 
than  the  Lord  wrote  on  the  two  tables  of  Sinai ;  they  gave 
it  a  broader  application  than  the  moral  law  of  the  ten 
commandments — comprehended  more  under  it  than  Paul 
did  when  he  said  (Rom.  13  :  8-10),  "  He  that  loveth  an- 
other hath  fulfilled  the  law  ;"  "love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the 
law."  These  epistles  to  Eome  and  Galatia  show  plainly 
that  those  Jews  held  circumcision  to  be  of  entirely  vital 
consequence.  When  they  spake  of  "law,"  therefore,  as 
comprehending  what  men  must  do  to  be  saved,  circumcis- 
ion was  in  it. — Moreover,  with  circumcision,  there  went 
also  into  their  sense  of  law  a  somewhat  indefinite  yet  very 
considerable  amount  of  ritual  observances ;  e.  g.  the  ob- 
servance of  sacred  seasons  ;  of  rites  of  purification  ;  sacri- 
fices, etc.,  etc.  The  Pharisee  whose  prayer  in  the  temple 
(Luke  18  :  11,  12),  recites  the  good  things  which  were  to 
commend  him  to  the  Lord's  special  favor,  said — "  I  fast 
twice  in  the  week ;  I  give  tithes  of  all  that  I  possess."  Our 
Lord  describes  the  Pharisees  (Mat.  23  :  23),  as  paying 
tithes  most  punctiliously  of  "mint,  anise  and  cummin," 
and  as  horrified  at  those  who  failed  to  wash  their  hands 
before  dinner.  (Mark  7  :  2-5,  and  Luke  11:  38.)  These 
incidental  touches  may  suffice  to  indicate  how  things  very 
small  in  themselves  are  magnified  in  their  notion  to  a  vast 
and  even  vital  importance  as  related  to  acceptance  before 
God. 

(2.)  Obedience  to  law  in  their  sense  of  it  was  held  to  be 
the  ground  of  their  justification.  1\\  their  view  they  were 
to  seek  salvation  by  obedience  to  this  law  and  had  the 
promise  of  finding, it  by  and  under  this  law  alone.  It  was 
in  this  point  of  light  that  Paul  continually  puts  laio  over 
against /«t^7i.  Law,  in  their  sense  and  view  of  it,  was  a 
wag  of  salvation,  as  really  as  in  Paul's  system,  faith  in 
Christ  was  the  condition  of  being  saved.      The  two  sys- 


TO  THE  ROMANS  AND  GALATIANS.  377 

terns,  considered  as  supplying  conditions  of  salvation,  were 
not  only  distinct  but  antagonistic  ;  either  one  supplanted 
the  other.  There  could  be  no  blending  of  the  two  to- 
gether. If  a  man  was  to  be  saved  by  obeying  law  in  the 
Jewish  sense  of  it,  he  had  no  Christ,  wanted  no  Christ, 
but  went  into  heaven  because  he  had  kept  the  law.  Every 
Jew,  converted  from  this  notion  of  being  saved  by  works 
of  law  to  the  opposite  system — salvation  through  faith  in 
Christ — must  therefore  absolutely  die  to  his  old  system, 
and  it  must  become  utterly  dead,  defunct,  powerless,  as  to 
him.  In  liis  thought,  in  his  liope  and  reliance,  law  must 
be  abjured,  and  faith  in  Christ  must  take  its  place — i.  e., 
considered  as  his  ground  of  reliance  for  pardon,  salvation, 
heaven.  But  this  by  no  means  implied  that  he  held  him- 
self free  from  obligation  to  obey  the  moral  law. 

(3.)  A  third  element  in  the  Jewish  conception  of  law 
(really  though  perhaps  not  broadly  distinguishable  from  the 
last  named)  lies  in  its  supposed  motive  power  against  sin  ; 
or  in  other  words,  its  effective  agencies  for  sanctification. 
It  is  plain  that  the  Pharasaic  i^^^  relied  upon  law  in 
his  sense  of  it  to  do  for  him  morally  and  spiritually,  what 
the  gospel  system  provides  for  in  its  revelations  of  Christ, 
especially  as  made  vividly  clear  and  tenderly  impressive 
through  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  debating  this  point  Paul 
maintained  that  mere  law,  though  in  itself  *' holy  and  just 
and  good,"  became  death  to  him  because  it  aroused  his 
combativeness — the  pressure  of  authority  upon  an  unhum- 
bled,  unsubdued  spirit,  provoked  resistance  and  worse  re- 
bellion (Rom.  7  :  8-13).  Over  against  tliis,  under  the  light 
and  glory  of  a  Saviour's  dying  love  shed  abroad  in  the  soul 
by  the  revealing  Spirit  (2  Cor.  3  :  IS),  men  are  "changed 
into  the  same  image";  sin  becomes  inexpressibly  loath- 
some ;  holiness  altogether  lovely. 

Here  then  is  yet  another  element,  not  only  present  but 
active  in  the  Jewish  conception  of  law — an  element  against 
Avhich  Paul  earnestly  contended.  To  law  so  considered, 
men  must  become  dead  ; — {.  e.  must  no  longer  rely  upon  the 
influence  of  mere  law  as  a  motive  power  for  subduing  sin 
and  implanting  the  spirit  of  a  loving  obedience. 

This  point  is  liable  to  be  overlooked.  We  shall  fail  to 
take  in  the  whole  of  the  Pharisaic  character  if  we  leave  out 
or  even  under-estimate  his  claim  to  a  pre-eminent  sanc- 
tity.   Let  the  reader  recall  the  Pharisee  in  his  devotions  at 


378     PAUL'S  USAGE  OF  THE  TERM  "LAW" 

the  temple  as  delineated  by  our  Lord  :  "  I  thank  thee  that 
I  am  not  as  other  men  are,  extortioners,  nnjiist,  adulterers, 
or  even  as  this  publican"  (Luke  IS:  11).  Or  as  not  less 
in  point,  Paul's  own  testimony  as  to  his  Pharisaic  life — 
''  Touching  the  righteousness  which  is  in  the  law,  blame- 
less "  (Phil.  3  :  6).  Similar  testimony  may  be  found  in  the 
appendix  to  Jahn's  Hebrew  Commonwealth — e.  g.  of  one 
Eliezer  the  Great  (p.  523)  who  shortly  before  his  death 
asked — '•'  What  precept  of  the  law  is  there  which  I  have  not 
obeyed  "  ?  Also  (p.  55G)  of  Kedah,  son  of  Elai,  currently 
known  as  "  Judah  the  sinless,"  said  to  have  continued  sin- 
less through  his  whole  life."  Of  course  this  sinlessness  was 
in  their  view  attained  under  mere  law. 

I  have  now  endeavored  to  show  that  at  the  date  of  these 
epistles  of  Paul,  the  Pharisaic  and  mainly  the  Jewish  con- 
ception of  law  had  three  peculiar  elements  which  should  be 
taken  into  account  in  our  exposition  of  the  passage  in  ques- 
tion— viz.  (1.)  It  comprehended  more  than  the  ten  com- 
mandments proclaimed  from  Sinai  : — (2.)  Obedience  to  it 
was  held  to  be  the  ground  of  justification  before  God  : — 
(3.)  It  was  assumed  to"  have  within  itself  all  needful  mo- 
tive power  to  produce  holiness, — all  the  influences  requisite 
for  sanctification. 

Bearing  these  points  distinctly  in  mind  we  are  prepared 
to  reach  an  exposition  of  the  passages  in  question  at  once 
satisfactory  and  safe.  The  key  is  in,  the  fact  that  Paul 
speaks  of  '"law"  in  the  Jeivish  sense  of  it.  He  remembers 
his  own  experience  under  those  views  down  to  the  hour  of 
liis  conversion.  He  perfectly  understands  how  his  readers 
in  Rome  and  Galatia  think  of  "law";  and  therefore  7/ e 
speaks  to  those  vieics.  Is  it  strange  then  that  Paul  should 
write  to  converts  from  Judaism  there — '"'Ye  are  not  under 
the  law,  but  under  grace  ;  "  or  this — "  Ye  are  become  dead 
to  the  law  by  the  body  of  Christ ; "  delivered  f  roni  the  law, 
having  died  to  that  under  which  we  were  held  "  (the  better 
translation  of  Rom.  7:6)? 

Of  the  '•'  law  "  as  enlarged  from  that  of  Sinai,  but  espe- 
cially considered  as  both  the  ground  of  justification  and 
the  requisite  power  unto  holiness  of  life,  how  could  he  say 
less  than  this  ?  Was  there  not  a  most  urgent  demand  that 
he  should  say  all  this,  as  he  might  hope  and  would  aim  to 
bring  them  off  from  reliances  that  could  be  only  ruinous, 
and  unto  a  faith  in  Christ  which  alone  could  save  ? 


TO  THE  ROMANS  AND  GALATIAXS.  379 

Writing  to  the  Galatians,  Paul  seems  to  make  one  point 
which  if  not  new,  is  at  least  made  specially  prominent, 
viz.,  that  the  law  itself  helped  him  to  renounce  the  law  as 
his  trust  for  justification  and  for  the  holiness  acceptable 
to  God: — '•'  I  through  the  laio  am  dead  to  the  law,  that  I 
might  live  .unto  God."  (Gal.  2:  19).  '-'Before  faith 
came,  we  were  kept  under  the  law,  shut  up  unto  the  faith 
which  should  afterward  be  revealed.  Wherefore  the  law 
was  our  schoolmaster  to  bring  us  unto  Christ,  etc.  (Gal  3: 
23, 24).  The  work  of  the  law  as  schoolmaster  may  have 
been  manifold,  and  not  confined  to  any  one  point ;  for  it 
might  quicken  the  conscience,  might  impress  a  sense  of 
sin  ;  might  reveal  its  own  utter  powerlessness  to  sanctify, 
and  might  destroy  all  hope  of  justification  on  the  score  of 
perfect  obedience. 

And  yet  further,  it  might  be  a  schoolmaster,  leading 
the  thought  and  the  heart  of  the  people  toward  Christ  by 
means  of  its  typical  foreshadowings  of  the  Great  Atoning 
Sufferer  toward  whom  all  sacrifice  pointed,  and  in  whom 
only  it  had  its  proper  realization. 

Hence  the  expositor's  difficulty  here  is  not  so  much  to 
find  ways  enough  in  which  the  schoolmaster  might  bring 
his  pupils  to  Christ,  as  to  determine  which  out  of  many 
was  most  prominent  before  the  Apostle's  mind. 

Yet  further  and  finally,  that  Paul  should  exhort  his 
Jewish  converts  to  '"'stand  fast  in  the  liberty  attained 
through  Christ  and  not  be  entangled  again  with  the  yoke 
of  bondage  " — bondage  to  the  rituals  of  the  Mosaic  system 
— has  its  ready  explanation  ;  for  was  not  Pharisaism  a 
horrible  yoke  of  bondage,  and  no  less  pernicious  than  heavy 
and  galling  ?  It  seems  to  be  evermore  the  genius  of  rit- 
ualism to  enforce  with  emphatic  stress  the  points  which 
are  specially  valueless,  and  according  as  they  are  so,  and 
thus  to  dwarf  piety,  if  perchance  there  be  any,  but  worst 
of  all,  to  locate  piety  where  it  is  not,  and  so  to  raise  per- 
sonal hopes  of  salvation  which  God  will  by  no  means  fulfil. 

It  will  now  be  seen  (let  us  hope),  that  we  can  give  these 
passages  an  adequate  and  satisfactory  exposition  without 
in  the  least  abating  from  the  present  authority  and  obliga- 
tion of  the  moral  law  of  Sinai,  and  hence,  without  at  all 
fostering  the  abuses  of  Antinomianism.  If  on  superficial 
thought  these  passages  may  seem  to  sound  like  an  abroga- 
tion of  the  law  of  Sinai,  it  is  only  because  the  thought  is 


380  PAUL'S  USAGE  OF  THE  TERM  "LAW" 

superficial,  satisfying  itself  with  the  sound,  and  stopping 
short  of  the  real  sense.  For  if  we  were  Jews,  holding  the 
sentiment  prevalent  among  Paul's  readers  in  Eome  or 
Galatia,  and  being  held  in  bondage  by  such  sentiments,  Ave 
could  not  easily  misunderstand  these  words  of  Paul.  There 
would  be  scarcely  the  least  imaginable  danger  that  we 
should  misconceive  his  meaning.  But  inasmuch  as  we  are 
not  Jews,  and  have  never  associated  under  the  term  "laio" 
that  group  of  ideas  and  those  shades  of  thought  which 
made  up  Pharisaism  in  the  gospel  age,  we  are  in  real  dan- 
ger of  misconceiving  Paul's  doctrine.  The  case  illustrates 
the  supreme  importance,  toward  a  correct  interpretation 
of  scriptural  terms,  of  studying  them  in  the  light  of  their 
historic  use  in  the  age  of  the  original  writer  and  of  the 
readers  for  whom  he  specially  wrote.  There  can  be  no 
worse  blunder  than  to  take  the  words  of  Scripture  in  the 
sense  current  now,  when  this  sense  differs  from  the  sense 
current  then.  We  must  go  back  to  the  age  when  these 
Avere  living  words,  and  AA'hen  the  thoughts  they  represent 
Avere  the  living  thoughts  of  men. 

Applying  to  the  scriptures  judiciously  these  principles 
of  interpretation,  we  learn  not  only  Avhat  they  viay  mean 
but  what  they  must.  We  may  arrive  at  a  reasonable  degree 
of  certainty.  Disregarding  these  princi|)les,  no  certainty 
can  ever  be  attained.  To  fall  back  upon  our  own  impres- 
sions or  intuitions  is  to  substitute  our  own  mind  in  place 
of  God's  mind  as  the  ultimate  fountain  of  truth.  If  we 
seek  truth  through  written  words  inspired  of  God,  then 
what  Paul  meant  to  say  and  God  meant  he  should  say  is 
the  truth  we  seek — nothing  less  or  more  than  this  and 
nothing  other.  Hence  if  a  revelation  of  God's  thought  in 
written  words  be  of  supreme,  priceless  value,  the  just  in- 
terpretation of  those  words  must  be  supremely  important — 
and  have  a  value  above  all  price. 

Eecurring  again  to  the  practical  application  of  the 
truths  supposed  to  lie  in  our  passage,  or  really  there,  let 
us  note  that  Christianity  has  often  been  sorely  afflicted  by 
the  evils  arising  from  their  misconception  and  abuse.  It 
is  a  sore  evil  that  Christian  minds  should  be  perplexed 
over  their  relations  to  the  moral  law  under  the  gospel 
scheme.  It  is  an  evil  yet  more  terrible  that  they  should 
be  positively  misguided  and  their  Adews  really  perverted. 
We  sometimes  hear  or  read  remarks  upon  "  the  bondage 


TO  THE  ROMANS  AND  GALATIANS.  381 

of  a  legal  spirit,"  which  ai'e  sadly  wanting  in  discrimination 
and  are  badly  liable  to  mislead.  If  there  be  any  good 
meaning  in  these  words,  what  may  it  be  ?  Is  it  thought 
important  to  the  best  Christian  life  to  decry  the  moral  law 
of  God  and  to  teach  that  love  is  higher  and  better  than 
law  and  therefore  that  obedience  to  law  belongs  to  a  lower 
grade  of  piety,  but  the  impulses  of  love  to  a  higher  ?  * 
Let  the  Christian  who  seeks  the  truth  on  these  points  ask 
himself  whether  there  is  any  ground  for  this  assumed  an- 
tagonism between  law  and  love  ?  Apply  to  it  what  Paul 
himself  has  said  of  law  ;  "  He  that  loveth  another  hath 
fulfilled  the  law."  For  example — "Thou  shalt  not  com- 
mit adultery  " — for  it  violates  the  law  of  love  to  your  fellow- 
beings.  "  Thou  shalt  not  steal " — for  this  offends  against 
love  etc. — and  if  there  be  any  other  commandment,  it  is 
briefly  comprehended  in  this  saying  ;  Tliou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself."  ''  Love  woj-keth  no  ill  to  his  neigh- 
bor, therefore  love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law."  A  greater 
than  Paul  had  already  said  essentially  the  same  thing  as  to 
the  relations  of  the  law  to  love  and  of  love  to  the  law — even 
He  under  whose  shaping  hand  the  grand  elements  of  all 
law  crystallized  into  those  ''two great  commandments  on 
which  hang  all  the  law  and  the  jirophets  " — the  first  and 
greatest  one  being — '*'  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God 
with  all  thine  heart  and  with  all  thy  soul  and  with  all  thy 
mind  : "  "  the  second  like  unto  it ;"  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself"  (Mat.  22:  36-40). — Is  there  even  the 
least  ground  here  for  assuming  an  antagonism  between  love 
and  law  ? 

Nay  verily.  Can  any  words  assume  more  absolutely 
that  they  are  essentially  and  in  spirit  identical — so  much 
so  that  law  is  obeyed  only  in  love  ;  that  love  and  only  love 
can  truly  meet  the  demands  of  law  ;  and  that  law  nevei" 
goes  beyond  love — i.  e.  never  requires  anything  more  or 
other  than  love  requires.  Law  is  of  use  to  define  the  proper 
channel  for  the  outgoings  of  love  toward  God  and  toward 

*  It  would  be  uncliaritable,  in  my  view  untrue,  to  say  that  all  the 
avowed  advocates  of  the  so-called  "  Higher  Christian  life,"  drift  to- 
ward Antinomianism  ;  but  it  may  be  said  safely  that  the  open  pro- 
fession of  living  a  sinless  life  has  to  a  certain  degree  a  natural  ten- 
dency toward  displacing  or  at  least  depreciating  the  moral  law  as 
the  rule  of  Christian  duty.  Hence  there  is  a  lieightened  demand  in 
our  times  for  the  most  thorough  discussion  of  the  points  made  in  the 
present  Essay. 
VI 


382  PAUL'S  USAGE  OF  THE  TERM  "LAW" 

our  neighbor  ;  it  were  supreme  folly  to  decry  the  value  of 
law  as  fulfilling  this  function. 

Is  it  said  that  love  makes  its  own  law  and  that  its  im- 
pulses are  a  law  unto  themselves  ?  I  am  well  aware  that 
this  is  virtually  said — but  none  too  wisely.  The  real  de- 
mand made  by  this  saying  is  for  a  licence  that  sets  law  at 
nought.  It  proposes  to  say  to  the  Almighty  Ruler — We 
need  no  direction,  and  propose  to  accept  none  as  to  the 
special  duties  or  services  toward  God  or  man  which  the  law 
of  love  requires  under  all  the  varying  circumstances  of  our 
earthly  life.  The  impulses  of  our  own  heart's  love  will 
guide  us  wisely  enough,  and  any  restraint  upon  their  free- 
dom we  propose  to  repel !  Let  love  be  free  !  Take  from 
it  the  element  of  freedom  and  what  of  moral  value  re- 
mains ? 

Such  reasoning,  in  such  a  spirit  (I  suggest)  assumes  to 
be  wiser  than  God,  and  holds  up  a  sort  of  virtue  which  has 
no  divine  warrant.  Who  knows  that  God  will  or  can  accept 
the  self-directed  impulses  of  such  love  as  a  substitute  for 
that  love  which  is  the  fulfilling  of  his  law  ? 

No  fundamental  discussion  of  this  point — the  essential 
nature  of  that  love  which  in  its  origin  and  its  professed 
law  of  direction  is  sim2:)ly  im^Julse — can  stop  short  of  the 
domain  of  metaphysics.  The  limits  of  this  essay  will  allow 
only  the  briefest  allusion  to  the  metaphysical  cliaracter  of 
such  impulse,  yet  enough  to  say  that  it  is  emotion,  not 
x)hoice  ;  that  it  has  in  it  no  more  virtue  as  it  exists  in  man 
than  it  has  in  a  kitten  or  a  robin  red-breast ;  that  it  is 
neither  intelligent  nor  voluntary,  and  therefore  fundamen- 
tally lacks  the  elements  of  true  virtue  or  holiness.  In  man, 
as  also  in  all  the  lower  animals,  it  comes  under  a  law  of  in- 
stinct which  our  Maker  has  implanted  in  our  constitution 
for  the  ultimate  purpose  of  making  existence  possible — to 
perpetuate  the  race  and  secure  a  certain  measure  of  good 
to  this  existence.  Into  the  far  higher  realm  of  intel- 
ligent, voluntary  service  for  other's  good,  it  never  enters. 
Of  personal  conscious,  voluntary  homage  and  obedience  to 
the  will  of  God,  it  knows  nothing.  It  is  therefore  an  out- 
rage upon  the  human  intelligence  to  foist  mere  impulse 
that  lacks  moral  character  into  the  place  of  the  voluntary, 
intelligent  love  which  manifests  itself  in  purposed  obedi- 
ence to  the  will  of  God. 

Recurrinir  affain  to  the  main  drift  of  our  discussion — 


TO  THE  ROMANS  AND  GALATIANS.  3S3 

Let  it  be  granted  that  law  conceived  of  in  the  Pharisaic 
sense  and  law  applied  for  Pharisaic  purposes,  deserves  to 
be  decried,  and  should  by  all  means  give  place  to  love — or 
rather  let  us  say — should  give  place  to  the  law  of  Sinai  as 
interpreted  by  Paul  himself,  and  by  his  and  our  Great 
Master,  Jesus  Christ. 

If  a  "  legal  spirit "  means  (as  these  words  should  mean) 
the  spirit  of  obedience  to  law,  let  it  reign  in  all  hearts. 
Jesus  has  said — "  If  ye  love  me,  keep  my  commandments." 
"He  that  hath  my  commandments  and  keepeth  them,  he 
it  is  that  loveth  me,"  (Jn.  14  :  15,  21.)  Obedience  is  the 
test  of  love.  A  love  that  reigns  not  unto  obedience — that 
fails  to  beget  obedience  to  the  known  will  of  the  Master — 
is  certainly  spurious.  It  may  be  emotional,  sensational,  or 
even  extatic  ;  but  it  can  never  satisfy  the  law  of  Christ  as 
expounded  by  himself.  It  is  simply  a  fallacy  to  glorify  it  by 
the  name  love. 

No  words  can  express  too  strongly  the  value  of  the 
moral  law  given  from  Sinai  and  the  importance  of  holding 
it  in  its  full,  unabated  force  under  the  gospel  system  as  en- 
joining love  supreme  towards  God  and  love  equal  and  im- 
partial towards  fellow  men.  Let  it  evermore  be  held  to 
prove  the  sincerity  of  our  heart-homage  toward  God  ;  let 
it  be  the  crucial  test  of  that  true  faith  in  Christ  which  he 
has  made  the  condition  of  salvation.  Let  it  therefore  be 
maintained  forever  that  the  moral  law,  first  given  from 
Sinai — then  interpreted,  endorsed,  re-affirmed  by  the  Son 
of  God — stands  in  unabated  force  under  the  gospel  scheme 
— with  force  indeed  augmented  and  heightened  by  the  su- 
peradded claims  that  come  upon  us  from  the  life  and  from 
the  death  of  the  incarnate  Son. 

Yet  again  :  If  the  moral  law  still  stands  in  undimin- 
ished force,  it  must  be  a  first  Christian  duty  to  cultivate 
conscientiousness  as  to  a  just  apprehension  of  its  meaning 
and  of  its  bearing  upon  ourselves,  and  as  to  our  own  per- 
sonal obedience  to  its  claims.  It  should  be  our  supreme 
endeavor  to  learn  what  it  enjoins  and  what  it  forbids.  We 
must  needs  Jcnoiv  before  we  obey.  And  the  spirit  of  obe- 
dience will  manifest  itself  in  a  most  careful  and  honest 
enquiry  for  its  real  meaning  and  for  its  actual  application 
to  ourselves  under  all  the  present  circumstances  of  every 
day  life.  The  conscientious  spirit  is  itself  obedience.  The 
honest  endeavor  to  ascertain  what  God's  law  requires  of 


384  PAUL'S  USAGE  OF  THE  TERM  "  LAW  " 

you  this  day,  and  in  the  very  circumstances  of  this  day's 
activities,  will  please  him  and  be  accepted  before  him. 
There  is  not  the  least  imaginable  danger  that  this  sort  of 
"  legal  spirit "  will  bring  you  under  any  "  bondage  "  which 
you  need  to  fear  or  avoid.  Its  "  bondage "  is  nothing 
worse,  nothing  other,  than  the  sweet  constraint  of  love. 

Deep  in  your  heart  you  are  glad  that  you  have  the  op- 
portunity to  express  your  love  and  your  gratitude  to  Him 
who  died  for  you,  by  diligently  studying  his  commands,  and 
by  most  persistent  endeavor  to  obey  them,  And  if  con- 
scious mistakes  as  to  knowledge  of  duty  and  conscious 
short-comings  in  its  performance  combine  to  oppress  the 
heart,  it  may  still  be  a  precious  consolation  if  we  can  look 
humbly  up  to  the  Master  and  say — "  I  have  sought  to  know 
and  labored  to  do  thy  will." — And  if  at  any  time  his  Spirit 
beareth  witness  to  our  spirit  that  it  is  even  so,  we  have 
reached  one  of  the  best  experiences  of  the  Christian  life. 
No  extacies  of  hope  as  to  the  glorious  future  are  to  be 
named  in  comparison  with  this. — Thus  the  law  of  God, 
legitimately  and  honestly  used,  works  itself  into  the  staple 
elements  of  true  piety."  But  if  dubiously  or  dimly  appre- 
hended, the  mind  being  dark  or  confused  as  to  the  legiti- 
mate sphere  and  function  of  the  moral  law,  the  effect  can 
scarcely  fail  to  be  damaging  if  not  even  disastrous  ujDon 
the  growth  and  joy  of  your  christian  life.  Much  more 
must  the  result  be  disastrous  if  it  rule  out  the  sense  of 
obligation  to  this  law  by  assuming  that  its  claims  on  us 
are  abrogated  under  the  gospel.  There  is  no  limit  to  the 
mischiefs  that  have  come  and  naturally  must  come  from 
antinomianism. 

Finally,  with  the  above  exposition  before  the  mind,  we 
readily  see  that  all  Paul's  words  to  the  Eomans  or  G-ala- 
tians  respecting  '  'works  of  law  "  and  "  works  of  righte- 
ousness "  as  related  to  the  salvation  of  men  must  be  in- 
terpreted under  the  light  of  their  usage  of  these  terms  and 
phrases.  Taking  law  in  their  sense  of  it  and  thinking  of 
"works  of  law"  or  ''of  righteousness"  as  the  ground  of 
justification,  or  as  the  motive  power  toward  holiness  of 
heart  and  life,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  there  is  great  and  vital 
truth  in  every  word  Paul  has  said  ;  and  also  that  there  is 
never  the  least  antagonism  between  his  doctrine  and  that 
of  his  brother  apostle,  James.  For  James  thought  of  God's 
law  as  the  rule  of  life  toward  fellowmen.     So  thought  of, 


TO  THE  ROMANS  AND  GALATIANS.  3S5 

Paul  would  endorse  James  in  every  word.  And  if  James 
had  found  or  taken  occasion  to  combat  the  errors  of  Phara- 
saic  Jews,  he  would  have  endorsed  unqualifiedly  every  word 
of  his  brother  Paul.  Their  supposed  discrepancy,  there- 
fore, is  no  real  discrepancy  whatever. 


APPENDIX  B. 


ONE  EESUERECTION  OE  TWO? 

Do  the  Scri]jtures  teach  the  doctrine  of  tioo  7-esurrecfions,  a 
first  and  a  second;  or  only  one,  strictly  universal,  of 
both  the  righteous  and  the  wicl'ed? 

1.  On  this  question  the  standard  authority  is  from  the 
lips  of  Jesus  himself  (John  5  :  28,  29)  ;  '"The  hour  is 
coming  in  the  which  all  that  are  in  their  graves  shall  hear 
liis  [Christ's]  voice,  and  shall  come  forth ;  they  that  have 
done  good,  unto  the  resurrection  of  life  ;  and  they  that 
have  done  evil  nnto  the  resurrection  of  damnation." 

The  reader  will  notice  that  tliis  statement  is  entirely 
explicit.  Here  are  the  two  well  defined  classes — "  they  that 
have  done  good,"  and  "  they  that  have  done  evil ;"  and 
these  two  comprise  the  whole  human  race.  Of  the  one 
class  it  is  declared  that  they  come  forth  from  their  graves 
to  "  the  resurrection  of  life,"  blessednesss  :  of  the  other, 
in  like  manner,  that  they  shall  come  forth  to  "  the  resur- 
rection which  is  unto  damnation."  Of  both  it  is  declared 
that  "  the  hour  is  coming" — some  one  hour,  not  two,  nor 
many,  but  the  one  hour  in  which  all — not  a  jjart,  but  all 
that  are  in  their  graves — which  must  of  necessity  include 
both  saints  and  sinners.  No  fair  construction  of  this  pas- 
sage can  make  it  consistent  with  the  theory  of  two  distinct 
resurrections  at  hours  far  remote  from  each  other.  If  Jesus 
had  designed  to  teach  the  doctrine  of  two  resurrections, 
one  for  the  righteous  and  another  for  the  wicked,  he  must 
have  made  a  very  different  statement  from  this. 

Again,  in  full  harmony  with  these  words  of  our  Lord 
is  Paul's  confession  of  his  faith  in  the  resurrection,  made 
before  Felix,  and  recorded  (Acts  24  :  15) ;  '*'  And  have 
hope  toward  God  (which  they  themselves  also  allow)  that 
there  shall  be  a  resurrection  of  the  dead,  both  of  the  just 


ONE  RESURRECTION  OR  TWO.  3S7 

and  of  the  unjust."  This,  it  will  be  noticed,  is  not  only 
Paul's  own  belief  but  that  of  the  Jews  also — one  ''which 
they  themselves  also  allow" — [accept]. 

Christ  taught  the  doctrine  of  the  final  judgment  very 
explicitly  and  circumstantially  in  Mat.  25;  31-46  — and  in 
a  way  which  indirectly  proves  because  it  irresistibly  assumes 
one  general  resurrection  as  against  two — one  including  both 
the  righteous  and  the  wicked,  and  not  two,  at  periods  re- 
mote from  each  other,  one  for  the  righteous  and  another 
for  the  wicked.  For  there  are  gathered,  before  the  one 
great  throne,  all  nations,  and  he  separates  them  one  from 
another  as  a  shepherd  divideth  his  sheep  from  the  goats. 
They  all  take  their  own  place — one  class  at  the  right  hand, 
and  the  other  at  the  left.  As  certainly  as  the  righteous 
and  the  wicked  are  both  and  all  here,  so  certainly  must 
they  have  been  previously  raised  from  their  graves  ;  for 
the  doctrine  of  scripture  every  where  is  that  the  final  resur- 
rection immediately  precedes  the  final  judgment. 

Yet  again,  John  (Eev.  20  :  12,  13)  most  decidedly 
assumes  one  general,  universal  resurrection,  in  the  words 
— "I  saw  the  dead,  small  and  great,  stand  before  God  ; 
and  the  books  were  opened ;  and  another  book  was  opened 
Avhich  is  the  book  of  life,  and  the  dead  were  judged  out  of 
those  things  which  were  written  in  the  books  according  to 
their  works.  And  the  sea  gave  up  the  dead  which  were 
in  them,  and  Death  and  Hades  delivered  up  the  dead  which 
were  in  them  ;  and  they  were  judged  every  man  according 
to  their  works." — That  this  includes  all  the  dead  is  made 
very  definite  by  the  statement — "  small  and  gi-cat,"  and  by 
the  further  declaration — "  The  sea  gave  up  the  dead  which 
were  in  it :" — the  realms  of  the  dead,  and  the  personified 
Euler  of  those  realms,  surrendered  all,  good  and  bad  who 
had  gone  thither  at  the  summons  of  death. — That  the 
righteous  are  here  as  well  as  the  wicked  is  made  certain  by 
the  opening  of  the  book  of  life  which  John  noticed  very 
particularly.  Those  whose  names  and  deeds  were  there 
are  embraced  in  this  universal  resurrection  and  judgment. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  testimony  of  the  scrijDtures 
to  the  point  of  one  general  resurrection  and  not  two,  lacks 
no  element  of  clearness,  definiteness,  explicitness,  nor  of 
inspired  authority.  If  the  word  of  Jesus  himself  is  good 
authority,  then  is  the  authority  for  one  general  resurrection 
as  against  two,  entirely  decisive. 


388  ONE  RESURRECTION  OR  TWO. 

2.  It  will  be  objected  that  the  scriptures  teach  very 
definitely  and  positively  that  ''the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise 
first"  (1  Thess.  4:  16);  and  also  that  there  is  a ''first 
resurrection  "  for  a  certain  class  well  defined  by  the  Eeve- 
lator  John,  and  distinguished  from  "the  rest  of  the  dead" 
(Rev.  20  :  4-G). 

It  is  proper  that  these  objections  should  be  carefully 
examined. 

As  to  the  passage  from  Paul  to  the  Thessalonians  ; — 
"  The  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first;  "  its  bearing  on  this 
question  is  only  apparent,  not  real ;  for  it  has  not  the 
slightest  reference  to  a  first  resurrection  as  related  to  a 
second.  Paul  says  nothing  here  of  a  first  resurrection 
before  a  second  resurrection,  i.  e.  of  the  righteous  before 
the  wicked,  or  even  of  a  part  of  the  righteous  before  a 
certain  other  part  of  them  ; — nothing  of  the  sort.  He 
speaks  of  the  dead  in  Christ  as  risin g^'r^^^,  only  in  the  sense 
of  rising  hefore  the  saints  then  living  and  remaining  [on 
earth]  shall  ascend,  so  that  all  will  ascend  together.  The 
great  point  he  would  affirm  in  this  passage  is  that  saints 
previously  dead  will  be  fit  no  disadvantage  compared  with 
those  who  shall  be  living  on  the  earth  at  the  final  coming 
of  the  Lord.  The  brethren  in  that  church  had  been 
sorrowing  unreasonably  over  their  departed  friends  as  be- 
ing at  great  disadvantage  compared  with  those  who  should 
be  yet  living  when  Christ  should  come.  This  misapprehen- 
sion of  theirs  it  was  Paul's  definite  and  sole  purpose  to 
correct. — This  "rising  first,"  therefore,  has  not  the  least 
conceivable  bearing  upon  a  first  resurrection  as  related  to 
a  second.  It  is  only  a  resurrection  *''  first"  as  being  before 
the  ascension  of  those  then  living. 

It  will  be  said  that  John  (llev.  20  :  4-G)  does  certainly 
si)eak  of  "the  first  resurrection;"  that  he  locates  it  in 
time  at  the  opening  of  the  Millennium ;  and  as  to  the 
persons  raised,  he  makes  them  the  martyrs  who  had  been 
beheaded  for  the  Avitness  of  Jesus. 

This  case  of  a  "first  resurrection"  should  be  carefully 
considered.* 


*  In  my  volume  on  the  Revelation  of  John  this  passage  received 
attention  in  its  place,  Many  of  the  points  of  argument  adduced 
there  will  reappear  here  ;  and  perhaps  some  others  may  be  added, 
or  put  in  stronger  and  better  light. 


ONE  RESURRECTION  OR  T\N'0.  389 

As  to  the  sense  of  this  "  first  resurrection,"  I  maintain 
that  it  is  a  resurrection,  not  of  bodies  but  of  souls. 

1.  Because  John  says  so.  He  tells  ns  distinctly  tcliat 
he  saw  ;  and  we  must  certainly  assume  that  this  is  all  that 
he  saw.  '*  I  saw  the  souls  of  them  that  were  beheaded  for 
the  witness  of  Jesus  and  for  the  word  of  God,  and  who  had 
not  worshipped  the  beast,  neither  his  image,  neither  had 
received  his  mark  upon  their  foreheads  or  in  their  hands  ; 
and  they  lived  and  reigned  with  Christ  a  thousand  years. 
But  the  rest  of  the  dead  lived  not  [the  better  text  is  pre- 
cisely this — ["'lived  not" — with  nothing  for  ''again"] — 
lived  not  in  this  special  sense  of  the  word  "live,"  until  the 
thousand  vears  were  finished.  This  is  the  first  resurrec- 
tion." (Rev.  20  :  4,  5). 

Let  it  be  noted  that  in  the  final  resurrection,  described 
in  this  very  chapter  (v.  ll-li),  John  saw  bodies  because 
they  were  to  be  seen.  That  was  a  resurrection  of  bodies. 
'•  I  saw  the  dead  small  and  great" — i.  e.  young  and  old — 
of  every  age.  For  "  the  sea  gave  up  the  dead  which  were 
in  it " — i.  e.  the  dead  bodies — '*'  and  Death  and  Hades 
delivered  up  the  dead  which  were  in  them  " — this  also  being 
the  dead  bodies. — All  this  shows  that  in  this  pictorial  vision, 
John  saw  things  as  in  a  great  panoramic  scene  where  objects 
were  drawn  pictorially  to  the  life.  When  the  resurrection 
was  that  of  bodies,  he  saw  the  bodies  as  they  were  to  be  : 
when  the  resurrection  was  only  that  of  souls,  he  saw  it  as 
it  was.  If  the  bodies  of  these  martyrs  were  to  rise  then  as 
well  as  their  souls,  John  would  have  seen  them.  Bodies, 
as  compared  with  souls  are  very  visible  things,  palpably 
visible  and  unmistakable. — I  must  insist  upon  this  funda- 
mental law  of  exegesis,  viz.  interj^ret  John  according  to 
what  he  said,  and  not  according  to  what  he  did  not  say. 
We  are  to  assume  that  he  told  us  cori'ectly  what  he  saio  in 
vision  and  that  he  saw  objects  as  they  tcere  to  be  in  fact, 
when  his  vision  should  be  fulfilled.  It  is  not  our  responsi- 
bility to  make  John's  visions  for  him,  nor  to  supjjose  that 
he  must  have  meant  something  different  from  what  he 
said.  Our  responsibility  begins  and  ends  with  fairly  in- 
terpreting what  he  wrote  as  to  the  things  he  saw. 

3.  Beyond  question  these  souls  are  the  same  which  he 
saw  under  the  altar  (as  in  chapter  6  :  9-11),  on  the  open- 
ing of  the  fifth  seal.     Kote  what  he  says  of  them  there. 

"I  saw  under  the  altar  the  souls  of  them  that  were 


390  ONE  RESUTTECTION  OR  TWO. 

slain  for  the  word  of  God  and  for  the  testimony  which 
they  held ;  and  they  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  saying ; 
'•'  IIow  long,  0  Lord,  Holy  and  True,  dost  thou  not  judge 
and  avenge  our  blood  on  them  that  dwell  on  the  earth  ?  " 
Observe,  the  general  description  is  the  same  there  as  here  ; 
in  each  case,  of  martyrs  "  slain  for  the  word  of  God  and 
for  the  witness  or  testimony  which  they  bore."  In  each 
case  he  saw  souls,  precisely  souls — not  bodies. — There,  under 
the  altar,  they  were  crying  unto  God  to  avenge  their  blood, 
and  his  own  bleeding  cause  :  here  God  has  done  it,  and 
they  are  jubilant.  There  they  were  lifting  up  their  implor- 
ing cry  as  if  the  burden  of  Christ's  falling  kingdom  were 
crushing  down  their  hearts.  Here  nothing  could  show 
more  impressively  that  God  had  heard  their  cry — had 
fought  and  conquered  the  old  Persecutor  of  the  saints,  and 
bound  him  with  his  great  chain. — Then  comes  in  this  new 
scene — the  old  praying  martyrs,  lifted  up  from  under  the 
altar  and  set  on  thrones,  and  judgment  given  them.  This 
was  real  life  from  the  dead — a  resurrection  according  to 
its  true  symbolic  sense. 

As  confirming  the  interpretation  here  given,  let  me  say 
briefly,  that  it  is  entirely  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  and 
scoj)e  of  this  entire  book  of  Revelation.  This  book  has 
precisely  one  supreme  purpose  and  but  one — that  is,  to 
sustain  the  faith  of  a  persecuted  church  ;  to  give  moral 
strength  to  bleeding  martyrs  ;  to  tone  up  the  moral  courage 
of  sullering,  imperilled  men  and  women  to  face  the  stake 
or  the  executioner's  ax,  because  victory  will  turn  on  Zion's 
side  and  martyrs  will  have  their  reward  in  pre-eminent 
glory  at  the  end.  This  purpose  reigns  throughout  this 
book,  boldly  prominent  in  every  scene.  The  case  of  these 
martyred  souls,  seen  first  under  the  altar  ;  seen  last  raised 
to  thrones — should  be  interpreted  in  harmony  with  the 
s]iirit  of  the  entire  book. 

The  rest  of  the  dead  lived  not — until  after  these  thou- 
sand years.  "The  first  resurrection  then,  whatever  its 
nature  may  have  been — whetlier  of  bodies,  or  of  souls  only, 
most  certainly  included  only  those  martyrs  whom  he  first 
saw  under  the  altar,  and  here  saw  again,  jubilant  as  with  a 
new  life  because  their  pi-ayer  had  been  heard.  It  must  be 
a  bold  and  violent  stretching  of  this  passage  to  make  it  teach 
the  resurrection  of  all  the  righteous  who  shall  have  lived  and 
died  before  the  Millenium  begins.     Certainlv  John  said  no 


ONE  RESURRECTION  OR  TWO.  391 

such  tiling  ;  what  right  then  have  we  to  say  it  and  chiiin 
his  aitthority  for  it — forcing  upon  his  words  a  sense  they 
cannot  bear  and  which  tlierefore  he  never  put  into  them  ? 
3.  It  is  entirely  natural  that  John  should  think  of  a 
first  and  a  second  resurrection  in  the  very  same  sense  of 
each  which  he  had  in  his  first  lesson  upon  the  resurrection 
given  him  by  his  Great  Master.  That  lesson  impressed 
his  mind  so  deeply  that  he  retained  it  for  life  and  gave  it 
a  place  in  his  gospel  history  (5  :  24-26,  27-29) — thus  : 
'•'He  that  heareth  my  word  and  believed  on  him  that  sent 
me  hath  everlasting  life,  and  shall  not  come  into  condem- 
nation ;  but  is  passed  from  death  iinto  life.'' — ''Verily, 
verily,  I  say  unto  you  ;  the  hour  is  coming  and  oioiu  is, 
when  the  dead  shall  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God  ;  and 
they  that  hear  shall  live." — This  the  reader  will  see,  is  a 
resurrection — a  passing  from  death  unto  life,  which  is 
precisely  a  resurrection — in  its  nature,  nothing  more — 
nothing  less.  The  dead  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God  ; 
and  hearing  it,  they  live.  This  is  a  resurrection.  The 
hour  for  such  resurrections  "now  is."  That  is  to  say, 
this  resurrection  is  the  passing  from  spiritual  death  to 
spiritual  life.  Eesurrection  is  here  a  figure  of  speech  for 
this  wonderful  transformation  from  death  to  life. — And 
the  reader  should  not  fail  to  note  that  this  is  the  first  resur- 
rection. The  second  is  brought  to  our  view  immediatelv 
(vs.  28,  29)  ;— "  Marvel  not  at  this  [that  the  voice  of  the 
Son  of  God  through  his  Spirit  is  so  mighty  in  the  new  birth 
of  dead  souls  into  life] — "for  the  hour  is  coming  [not 
"now  is,"  but  simply  "  is  coming"]  in  the  which  all  that 
are  in  the  graves  shall  hear  his  voice  and  shall  come  forth  ; 
they  that  have  done  good,  unto  the  resurrection  of  life  ; 
they  that  have  done  evil,  to  the  resurrection  of  damnation." 
This  is  the  second  resurrection.  The  first  was  spiritual, 
figurative  :  the  second  is  literal.  As  the  first  was  of  souls 
raised  to  a  new  soul-life  ;  so  this  second  is  of  bodies,  raised 
to  bodily  resurrection — "this  mortal  putting  on  immor- 
tality."— How  could  John  ever  forget  this  striking  anti- 
thesis between  the  first  resurrection  which  is  spiritual,  and 
the  second  which  is  literal ; — the  first,  of  souls  only,  and 
the  second  of  bodies  ?  Is  it  strange  that  the  very  same 
conception  of  a  first  and  of  a  second  resurrection  should 
'reappear  in  his  Apocalypse  ?  It  would  have  been  far  more 
strange  if  it  had  not  reappeared  here. 


392  ONE  RESURRECTION  OR  TWO. 

4.  Au  argument  of  the  same  general  character  lies  in 
these  facts  viz.  (a)  That  John  horrows  his  symbols  and 
figures  almost  exclusively  from  the  Old  Testament  prophets. 
You  may  go  through  this  entire  apocalypse  and  scarcely  find 
one  symbol,  figure,  type,  the  roots  of  which  and  mostly 
the  identical  form  do  not  appear  in  the  Old  Prophets. — 
(b)  Couple  with  this  first  fact,  a  second — viz.  That  the 
Old  Testament  Prophets  made  the  resurrection  a  figure  or 
symbol  of  national  resurrection  to  life.  Most  if  not  all  the 
distinct  cases  of  reference  to  the  idea  of  resurrection  ai'e  of 
this  sort — a  symbolic  use  to  signify  the  raising  of  a  nation 
from  figurative  death  to  life.  The  clearest  cases  are  Isa. 
26  :  and  Ezek  37  : 

Isaiah  (26  :  14,  19)  declares  of  God's  enemies  [with 
special  reference  to  Babylon]  "They  are  dead  ;  they  shall 
not  live  again  ;  they  are  deceased  ;  they  shall  rise  ;  because 
thou  hast  visited  and  destroyed  them  and  made  every  me- 
morial of  them  to  perish." — But  of  Zion — God's  covenant 
people — he  says  \ — [as  in  the  Auth.  version].  "  Thy  dead 
men  shall  live :  together  with  my  dead  body  they  shall 
arise.  Awake  and  sing,  ye  that  dwell  in  dust,  for  thy  dew 
is  as  the  dew  of  herbs,  and  the  earth  shall  cast  forth  her 
dead." — An  improved  translation,  slightly  expanded  by 
paraphrase,  will  better  present  the  full  sense. — Thy  dead, 
0  Zion,  shall  live  again  ;  being  my  dead  body,  they  shall 
rise  again.  Awake  and  sing,  ye  that  lie  buried  in  dust ; 
awake,  come  forth  from  your  [figurative]  graves  ;  for  the 
dew  that  fell  on  thy  dead  body  was  as  the  dew  of  heaven 
on  withering  vegetation,  vivifying,  restoring  to  new  life. 
Therefore  the  earth  shall  give  up  her  dead." — Or  the  last 
clause  may  take  this  turn  : — And  on  the  earth,  on  the 
dead  strown  there,  thou  wilt  make  this  dew  of  life  to  fall. 
On  the  general  interpretation  of  these  resurrections,  there 
cannot  be  the  least  doubt.  God's  captive  people  (Zion)  in 
Babylon  are  nationally  dead  :  his  Spirit  breathes  new  life 
into  them  and  they  rise  to  a  new  and  spiritually,  far  more 
vigorous,  life.  It  is  the  idea  of  a  resurrection  put  to  service 
to  indicate  the  resuscitation  of  the  Lord's  Zion,  returning 
from  her  seventy  years'  Captivity. 

Ezek.  37  :  1-14  is  so  entirely  clear  that  more  explana- 
tion may  seem  superfluous.  The  dry  bones  of  the  dead 
Israel  lie  bleaching  in  the  valley  ;  can  they  ever  live  again? 
The  Lord  declares  that  they  can  and  that  they  shall.     His 


ONE  RESURRECTION  OR  TWO.  393 

own  explfiiiation  of  this  symbol  is  at  once  brief  and  deci- 
sive : — "  These  bones  are  the  whole  house  of  Israel."  Thus 
saith  the  Lord  ;— "  Behold,  0  my  people,  I  will  open  your 
graves,  and  cause  you  to  come  up  out  of  your  graves,  and 
bring  you  into  the  land  of  Israel." — This  is  the  use  made 
by  the  old  prophets  of  the  idea  of  resurrection. 

These  prophets  were  classic  authorities  to  John.  Their 
figures  and  symbols  filled  and  fired  his  imagination — lived 
and  glowed  in  his  impassioned  thought.  It  was  therefore 
by  a  first  law  of  the  human  mind  that  they  should  reappear 
in  his  own  visions.  We  are  bound  to  expect  that  the  Old 
Testament  usage  of  the  idea  of  resurrection  will  control  his 
conceptions,  his  visions,  his  language.  It  is  therefore  at 
the  behest  of  the  strongest  and  best  laws  of  interpretation 
that  we  construe  John's  first  resurrection  in  harmony  with 
that  sense  of  resurrection  which  obtains  in  the  Old 
Prophets. 

5.  It  may  not  be  amiss  to  notice  that  John  does  not 
speak  of  a  second  resurrection  hy  name.  He  does  not  say 
— "  This  is  the  first  resui'rection  :"  and  then,  by  and  by, 
coming  to  the  final  one,  say — Tltis  is  the  second.  If  he 
had  put  the  first  and  the  second  in  this  way  of  distinct 
antithesis — one  over  against  the  other,  under  the  same 
word,  there  would  be  some  force  in  the  argument  [much 
more  than  there  is  now]  that  the  first  must  be  of  the  same 
sort  as  the  second.  But  he  carefully  abstains  from  putting 
the  second  in  this  close  antithesis  with  the  first.  He  has 
occasion  to  speak  of  what  is  a  second  resurrection  ;  but  he 
does  not  put  it  in  this  same  phrase.  He  only  says  : — "  I 
saw  the  dead,  small  and  great,  stand  before  God  ;  "  "  the 
sea  gave  up  the  dead  that  were  in  them  "  etc.  Thus  [was 
it  of  design  ?]  he  has  left  the  way  entirely  open  to  ex- 
plain the  first  resurrection  as  not  of  precisely  the  same 
sort  as  the  second,  but  as  being  a  resurrection  of  souls  from 
grief  and  agony  to  joy  and  triumph  ;  while  the  second  may 
be  of  bodies  raised  at  the  last  day. 

6.  Akin  to  this  consideration  is  yet  another,  viz.  that 
the  first  resurrection  is  put  in  direct  antithesis  with  •'  the 
second  death."  Here  a  '■'  first "  is  compared  and  contrasted 
with  a  "second."  The  first  is  freighted  with  glory  and 
triumph  :  the  second  is  the  consummation  of  unutterable 
loss,  ruin,  damnation.  The  contrast  is  fearful,  terrible. 
Nothing  could  be  more  vivid,  more  appalling — the  vising 


394  ONE  RESURRECTION  OR  TWO. 

to  joy  and  bliss  unspeakable,  over  against  the  "■  death  that 
never  dies." 

7.  A  word  of  exposition  may  be  due  upon  the  passage 
(v.  4)  ;  "I  saw  thrones,  and  they  sat  upon  them,  and 
judgment  was  given  to  them."  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt 
that  these  words  follow  (in  sense)  those  of  Christ  to  his 
disciples  as  in  Mat.  19  :  28,  and  in  Luke  22  :  30  :  "  Ye 
that  have  followed  me  in  the  regeneration,  when  the  Son 
of  man  shall  sit  in  the  throne  of  his  glory,  ye  also  shall  sit 
upon  twelve  thrones,  judging  the  twelves  tribes  of  Israel." 
"  I  appoint  unto  a  you  a  kingdom.  .  .  that  ye  may  sit  on 
thrones,  judging  tlie  twelve  tribes  of  Israel."  No  literal 
sense  can  be  given  to  these  passages,  in  consistency  Avith 
the  genius  of  the  gospel  scheme.  Elevation  to  high  honor 
and  responsibility  in  his  kingdom,  is  the  sentiment  here. 
The  conception  fits  well  to  the  sentiment  in  our  j^assage. 

The  exposition  of  this  passage  (Rev.  20:)  has  peculiar 
and  very  special  importance  because  of  its  fundamental  re- 
lation to  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  Pre- millennial  Advent. 
The  two  points  in  this  scheme,  more  vital  than  any  and  all 
others,  are 

(1.)  That  Christ  is  to  come  in  person — visibly,  bodily 
from  heaven  to  reign  visibly  on  the  earth — this  "  coming  " 
to  be  at  the  beginning  [not  after  the  end]  of  the  Millen- 
nium ; 

(2.)  That  at  his  coming,  the  first  resurrection  will  bring 
forth  from  their  graves  the  righteous  dead  to  reign  with 
him  on  this  earth  one  thousand  years. 

Now  it  so  happens  that  by  reason  of  a  remarkable  series 
of  misconceptions  and  misinterpretations,  and  largely  by 
putting  into  the  passage  what  the  inspired  writer  never 
put  there,  these  supposed  corner  stones  of  this  system  of 
doctrine  are  not  there  ;  they  do  not  lie  under  the  edifice  at 
all. — For  in  the  first  place,  there  is  not  a  word  in  the  pas- 
sage about  the  visible  coming  of  Christ  at  this  point  of 
time — the  beginning  of  the  Millennium.  John  saw  several 
other  things  occurring  at  this  point  of  time  ;  but  not  this  ; 
— many  other  things  of  comparatively  insignificant  impor- 
tance ;  but  this  greatest  possible  spectacle,  grand  and  awful 
enough  to  throw  every  thing  else  into  darkness  (if  it  really 
took  place  then  and  there),  he  did  not  see.  For  it  is  not 
even  supposable  that  he  saw  it,  yet  did  not  think  it  of  suf- 
ficient importance  to  speak  of  it.     It  is  simply  impossible 


ONE  RESURRECTION  OR  TWO.  395 

that  Clirist's  Second  Advent  should  lie  precisely  here  in 
time — the  great,  towering,  all  overshadowing  event  of  the 
hour,  and  yet  not  be  in  John's  vision,  and  be  in  it  too  more 
distinct,  more  impressive,  more  vast  to  the  eye  than  any- 
thing else,  or  indeed  than  all  things  else  combined.  There- 
fore it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  first  corner-stone  of 
this  system  is  not  there,  in  its  needed  and  legitimate  place. 

Nor  is  the  system  at  all  more  fortunate  as  to  the  posi- 
tion of  its  second  great  pillar  doctrine — [or  corner-stone] 
viz,  the  resurrection  of  the  righteous  dead  at  this  precise 
moment,  i.  e.  at  the  beginning  of  the  Millennium.  For 
the  first  resurrection  which  John  saw  at  this  time  and  de- 
scribed was  not  a  resurrection  of  all  the  righteous  dead,  but 
only  of  certain  martyrs,  then  recently  fallen  when  he  was 
writing — for  in  their  prayer  as  he  recorded  it,  they  say — 
"Avenge  our  blood  on  those  now  dwelling  on  the  earth" 
(6:  10).  These  are  the  very  words  of  their  jirayer  [the 
present  participle — now  dwelling],  which  shows  conclu- 
sively that  the  number  of  these  martyrs  was  very  small. — 
By  what  sort  of  right  all  the  righteous  dead  are  authori- 
zed to  put  their  names  into  this  list,  or  by  what  right  any 
interpreter  of  scripture  assumes  to  put  them  there,  are  very 
pertinent  enquiries. 

Yet  another  mistake  has  been  made  in  adjusting  this 
corner-stone  to  the  edifice  it  has  been  assumed  to  sujiport, 
viz,  that  this  resurrection  is  shown  by  John's  own  state- 
ments to  have  been  of  souls,  not  of  bodies  ; — and  this  fact, 
as  we  have  seen,  is  sustained  by  all  those  considerations 
which  legitimately  determine  the  true  interpretation  of 
John's  symbols.  Thus  in  both  these  vital  respects,  this 
great  pillar  doctrine  of  the  system  is  entirely  out  of  place, 
as  a  corner-stone.  It  does  not  underlie  the  edifice.  You 
look  where  it  should  be — and  it  is  not  there. 


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EARLY    CHRISTIAN 

LITEEATTJEE  PEIIEES. 

EDITED  BT 

Professor  GEORGE  PARK  FISHER,  D.D. 


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By  Rev.  GEORGE  A.  JACKSON. 

THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS,  AND  THE  APOLOGISTS. 

A.  D.  95-180. 

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Fathers— Clement  of  Rome- Sketcli,  Epistle  to  Corinthians,  and  Clementine 
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Polycarp— Sketch,  and  Epistle  to  Philippians;  Barnabas— Sketch,  and  Epistle. 
Associated  Authors.  Uermas — Sketch,  and  the  Shepherd;  Papias— Sketch,  and 
Fragments. 

The  Apologists. — Introductory  Sketcli— Notice,  and  Epistle  to  Diognetus; 
Justin— Sketch,  First  Apology,  and  Synopsis  of  Dialogue  with  Trypho;  Author 
of  Muratorian  Fragment,  and  the  Fragment;  Melito— Sketch,  and  Fragment; 
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ment on  the  Resurrection. 

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EARLY    CHRISTIAN 

LITEEATUEE  PEIMEES. 

EDITED  BT 

Professor  GEORGE  PABE  FISDER,  D.  D. 


IN   PREPARATION. 

THE  FATHERS  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY, 

Contents  :  Introduction  (a.  d.  180-325),  on  the  Influence  of  Origeu  in  the 
East  and  of  Cyprian  in  the  West— Irenseus—HippolytUB— Clement  of  Alexandm 
—Origen— Methodius— TertuUian— Cyprian. 


THE  POST.NICENE  GREEK  FATHERS. 

Contents:  Introduction  (a.  d.  325-750),  on  the  Schools  of  Alexandria  and 
Antioch— Eusebius  of  Csesarea-Athanasius— Basil— Gregory  of  NyEsa— Gregory 
Nazianzen— Epiphanius— John  Chrysostom — Theodore  of  Mopsneslia- The- 
odoret— Cyril  of  Alexandria— The  Historians  of  the  Fifth  and  Sixth  Centuries. 


THE  POST-NICE NE  LATIN  FATHERS. 

Contents  :  Introduction  (a.  d.  325-5G0),  on  the  Influence  of  the  Roman  Juris- 
prudence upon  the  Latin  Church  Writers— Lactantius  ;  Hilary;  Amhrost ; 
Jerome;  Augustine;  JohnCassian;  Leo  the  Great;  Gregory  the  Great;  the  His 
torians  Kufinus,  Sulpicius,  Severus,  and  Cassiodorus. 


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THE 

ENGLISH    REFORMATION: 

HO IV  IT  CAME  ABOUT  AND  WHY  WE  SHOULD 
UPHOLD  IT. 

BY 

CUNNINGHAM     GEIKIE,  D.D., 
Autlior  of  "  The  Life  and  Words  of  Christ." 

WITH  A  PRZFACE  BY  THE  AUTHOR  FOR  THE  AMERICAN  EDITION. 


1  vol.,  12mo.     Cloth.     512  pages.     Piice,  $2.00. 


"  '  The  Enfrlisli  Eeformation '  is,  it  may  frankly  be  confessed,  a  history  ■with  a  pur- 
pose. But  It  is  none  the  worse  for  that.  It  ie  absolutely  refreshing  in  these  days  of 
'half-and-half  to  meet  a  man  who  positively  believes  m  something,  and  makes  the 
reader  feel  that  he  walks  upon  firm  ground  ;  that  there  is  somewhere,  in  this  bog  of 
doubt,  firm  footing.  .  .  .  But  let  us  hasten  to  say  that  this  is  a,  history  cleared  and 
■well  proved,  and  not  a  controversial  tract.  It  is,  moreover,  not  only  a  history  based 
upon  knowledge  and  research  that  will  compel  the  reader's  acquiescence  in  its  ve- 
racity, but  it  is  ^vTitten  with  so  much  vigor,  lucidity,  charm  of  stj'le,  and  discrimina- 
tion that  the  reader  ■will  enjoy  its  perusal  \horo\xgti\}'.'''—Hari/ord  C'ourant, 

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and  wUl  excite  thought  and  discussion." — Boston  Evening  Trariscript. 

"Among  the  best  books  of  the  season  is  the  American  edition  of  'The  English 
Eeformation.'  " — N.  Y.  Methodist. 

"Dr.  Geikie's  'Life  and  Words  of  Christ'  has  gained  him  a  ■world-^wide  reputation, 
and  this  book  is  marked  by  a  like  thoroughness  and  brilliancy."— 7V^  Y.  Baptist  Weekly. 

"A  most  satisfactory  contribution  to  the  demands  of  the  times." — PliiladelpJiia 
Episcopal  Register. 

"Br.  Geikie  has  given  us  an  admirable  account  of  'The  English  Eeformation.'  It 
is  a  book  of  thi-illing,  even  at  times  of  painful,  interest.  The  reader  ■will  be  amazed 
afresh  at  thought  of  '  the  great  price '  at  which  our  spiritual  ancestors  purchased  that 
citizenship  of  liberty  into  which  we  were  born." — Chicago  Advance. 


D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishees,  1,  3,  &  5  Bond  Street,  N.  Y. 


CLASSICAL  WRITERS, 

Edited  by  JOHN  RICHARD  GREEN. 


lOmo.    Flexible  cloth.    -        -       -    Price,  60  cents. 


Under  the  above  title,  Messrs.  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  are  issuing  a  series 
of  small  volumes  upon  some  of  the  princiijal  classical  and  English  writers, 
whose  works  form  subjects  of  study  in  our  colleges,  or  which  arc  read  by 
the  general  public  concerned  in  classical  and  English  literature  for  its 
own  sake.  As  the  object  of  the  series  is  educational,  care  is  taken  to 
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It  is  a  principle  of  the  series  that,  by  careful  selection  of  authors,  the 
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The  following  volumes  are  in  preparation  : 

SOPHOCLES Professor  Lewis  Campbell.   [Heady. 

EURIPIDES Professor  Mahaff y.  \_Rcady. 

HERODOTUS Professor  Bryce. 

DEMOSTHENES S.  H.  Butcher,  TUL.  A. 

VERGIL Professor  Nettleship.  {Ready. 

HORACE....: T.  H.  Ward,  M.  A. 

CICERO Professor  A.  S.  Wilkins. 

LIVY "W.  W.  Capes,  M.  A. 

Ensra-Lisia:. 

MILTON Rev.  Stopford  A.  Brooke.     {Ready. 

BACON Rev.  Dr.  Abbott. 

SPENSER Professor  J.  W.  Hales. 

CHAUCER F.  J.  Furnivall. 

Other  volumes  to  follow. 

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